Brass and Blue
by PhunkyBrewster
Summary: Detective Danny Castellano must learn that working alone doesn't always get the job done. There are times when a partner is necessary. Enter Detective Mindy Lahiri. Multi-chapter. Danny/Mindy. Warning: Minor Character Death. COMPLETE.
1. Chapter 1

If there was a sound more satisfying than that of a solved case file dropping into his desk cabinet with an echoing thud, then it had never graced the ears of Danny Castellano. He had long learned to associate the resonance of reverberating metal with competence. To his squad, it was the telltale signal for "another case solved by Castellano." To them, it was a noise that was unabashedly loud and, if at all possible, quite smug. Danny, however, found it to be more invigorating than the strongest cup of coffee…which was helpful, being that it was 6:30 in the morning and he had already been at his desk for an hour.

He had fifteen minutes until the morning briefing with the rest of his department, which was just enough time to enjoy his oatmeal in the break room and rehearse a cool enough response to the captain when he eventually followed up on the Cordello case. Times like these made him wish he had the ability to come up with a decent pun. The last time he announced a closed case with a pun it went so terribly that it almost negated the victory entirely. The humble approach wouldn't be believable nor the least bit genuine. This had been a major case and he considered the resulting arrest and confession one of the crowned jewels of his career. He had no desire to downplay his hard work, especially not today when the Daniels case was ripe for the picking.

Though Danny was never one to callously celebrate a homicide, it was hard to overlook the fact that this could be a potentially career-making case. With Captain Shulman so close to retirement, solving this would guarantee the promotion that fueled him during the arduous stake-outs and tedious paperwork. Danny predicted that just about every detective on the force would want the assignment, but nobody, as far as he was concerned, needed it like he did – not Grandy, not Prentice, and especially not Lang. With that thought he stirred the small container of mixed berries into his oatmeal with a renewed purpose.

He felt a sudden clap on his shoulder. He turned his head to find a pretty smirking blonde.

"Heard you wrapped up the Cordello case last night," Gwen Grandy said as she brushed past him towards the coffee station.

"That I did, "Danny replied proudly, "and I have to say, I don't know how I'm going to top the masterful performance I gave during the interrogation…but you know I will somehow." He sealed the assertion with a wink as he shoved a spoonful of oatmeal in his mouth.

Gwen shook her head with a sigh. "You really need to be more careful, Castellano. Taking in a perp with weak evidence like that? You're lucky he was stupid and didn't think to hold out for a lawyer!"

"Hey, luck has nothing to do with anything. Sitting around and waiting for the perfect piece of evidence is not what led me to an arrest and confession within a day's time. Nothing is more effective than seasoned, vetted intuition."

"Evidence," Gwen countered plainly. "Evidence is far more effective."

Danny rolled his eyes and stood to his feet, bowl in hand. "I'll take your obvious jealousy as your way of saying congratulations. I'm sure your unsolicited advice will be of great help to me during the Daniels investigation."

Gwen tossed her head back and let out a lilting laugh as she stirred sweetener into her coffee. "Wow, you really think you're getting the Daniels case? That's funny."

Danny gave a confident half smile. "How can the captain not give it to me? I've got more solved cases under my belt than anyone here –"

"Again, a lot of that is luck," Gwen interjected with an exasperated tone and a raise of her eyebrows.

"And I'm at the top of my game!" he continued. "Putting me on it would be the smartest move and Shulman's no dummy."

Gwen shrugged before bringing the steaming Styrofoam cup to her lips. "Rumor has it that the captain thinks Lang's the guy for the job."

The mere mention of Charlie Lang's name triggered an anxious twitch. "Goddamn, **Lang?! **He's really gonna go with that smug, cocky asshole?"

With another laugh, Gwen teased, "Pot calling the kettle much?"

"I resent that, Gwen."

"Hey, I've never had a problem with it," she conceded before taking a cautious sip of her coffee. "But I'd imagine that he wouldn't want to put a guy on the case who just made an arrest because – oh, what was your brilliant reasoning again? Ah, right – 'He was seen on a security camera a few blocks away; and besides, any guy with a tattoo on his face is automatically guilty!'" Seemingly satisfied by her exaggerated impression of her colleague, she stopped and took another sip of her coffee.

Danny was too focused on the possibility of missing his big opportunity that he didn't even address Gwen's teasing. "Shit. I've gotta talk to the captain."

* * *

"Morning, team," greeted a weary-looking Captain Marc Shulman as he made his way to the podium at the front of the debriefing room. The wrinkles in his grey suit pants and jacket indicated that he had been in his clothes for a while, one of the many signs of a long night. He faced his subordinates once he arrived at the front, the dark circles under his eyes magnified by his thin-rimmed glasses. The fluorescent lighting and his bald scalp created a distracting glare. Marc maintained a grip on his coffee thermos and a thin file.

"I hope everyone's well rested and caffeinated like hell because today's gonna be a long one. First of all, let's all recognize Detective Castellano on closing the Cordello case in an impressive amount of time."

Despite a rather mixed crowd reaction of unenthusiastic applause and a few genuinely supportive cheers, Danny smirked and shrugged his shoulders. "What can I say? When you're good at what you do…"

"And when your perps forget to call their lawyers," a voice added from the back of the room.

"Can it, Prentice!"

"Either way," Marc interjected, raising his voice and regaining control of the room, "We got the confession we needed with minimal mess. Good work, Castellano."

Danny tipped his head appreciatively in lieu of a thank you. Marc continued.

"Prentice, where are we with the Jasmine Club shooter?"

The younger gentleman sat up and ran his fingers through his curly hair. "Yeah, captain, we've tracked down the bouncer we think is a primary witness. We're hitting him up first thing."

"Don't waste any time," the captain commanded with an authoritative point of his finger. "He's been ducking us and I suspect he's a flight risk. Don't let him out of your sight until he gives us the info we need."

"No problemo, sir."

"Good." Marc set the file on top of the podium and flipped it open with his newly free hand, still holding on to his beverage with the other. "Alright, so as you all know, Josh Daniels's body was found in a parking garage on 26th Avenue. He was found fairly fresh with three lateral stab wounds." He pulled a few large photographs from the folder and held them up for everyone to see. The unnaturally handsome face staring back at the group from the glossy print looked like he had never encountered a problem in his entire existence: a perfectly chiseled jaw line, deep blue eyes, immaculately styled blonde hair, and capped white teeth flashing through a wide grin. He was waving from a podium adorning a mayoral election sign. The scene in the second photo, however, was far grimmer: a dark corner of a garage and a smattering of blood seeping into the concrete, all of which was illuminated only by the bright flash of the camera. A line of police tape could be seen in the bottom left corner. Aside from the blood, the scene was relatively bare. Danny had certainly seen much worse.

"Damn, what a shame," said an almost apathetic sounding, Jersey accent-heavy voice to Danny's left. He turned to find Shauna Dicanio looking at the victim's picture with seemingly bored eyes, though her mouth was strewn to the side. "He was a hottie."

"So would it have been less of a shame had he been ugly?" Gwen piped up for behind, looking fairly amused.

"I would never say anything like that," Shauna denied, though Danny was sure he could hear her add "out loud" under her breath.

"Alright, ladies," the captain warned with a raise of his hand. "Everyone, just keep your ears to the ground on this one. The place where he was found has been a relatively quiet area for some time now. Just stay vigilant. Press conference in an hour. You know the drill." The understanding that there was to be no independent talking with the press was a long-established one, yet Captain Shulman still felt the need to remind them any time there was a high profile case. He checked his watch and emitted a tiny grunt before grabbing hold of his thermos.

"Okay, this meeting's going to be a short one," he informed them, much to Danny's delight. He was eager to talk to him alone. "Everyone, make sure you're still collecting donations for the Alzheimer's run. For those of you who have reports that are due, I want them on my desk before the close of the day. That goes double for you, Prentice."

"Awww, c'mon," Peter groaned in protest.

"No excuses," Marc commanded as he collected himself and prepared to depart from his squad. "Alright, get out of here. Lang, come see me in my office in five minutes."

"You've got it, captain," Charlie Lang complied. Danny didn't have to face him to know that he was donning his typically superior expression. It was apparent that the rumor of him being assigned the Daniels case had made it to him. He already sounded victorious, which made Danny's jaw clench. He refused to let the captain see Lang without seeing him first. Danny quickly stood up and followed him out of the debriefing room.

"Oh hey, little buddy," Charlie called out. The jest in his tone would usually be enough to pull Danny into a verbal sparring match, but he had more pressing matters to attend to.

"Not now, Lang," he replied swiftly, continuing his path to Marc's office. He could hear the beginning of a response from the man he considered a nemesis, but drowned out the sound with a tap of his knuckle on the captain's office door frame.

"Uh, captain?" Danny called out as tentatively. "You got a minute?"

"Castellano," the bald man greeted half-heartedly as he finally set down his oversized thermos of coffee on top of his desk. "I know you heard me tell Charlie that I had a phone call to make. Can this wait?"

Danny entered the office anyway. "With all due respect, Captain Shulman, I don't think it can. I promise I'll be quick." He quickly shut the door, then turned back towards the desk. "I wanted to talk to you about the Daniels case."

"Of course you do."

"I want it, sir. I'll be honest; I want it pretty damn badly."

Captain Shulman eased into his plush chair with an audible sigh. He removed his glasses and began cleaning off the lenses with the hem of his jacket. "Danny, you're a great cop, but I'm not sure putting you on this case is the best idea. Not with the heightened amount of scrutiny we'll be under."

"But captain, I'm one of the best," Danny pressed as he edged closer to the desk. "I closed the Cordello case in an impressive amount of time, rember? I know I can do it again."

After a careful look over his glasses, Marc secured them on his face and scooted close enough to be able to prop his elbows on the surface of his desk. "Danny, I remember when you first joined the force. You were eager, by the book, and incredibly thorough. I still see some of that in you, actually, especially the eagerness."

"Thank you, sir."

"But you've become complacent with age, Castellano," Marc continued, his voice betraying a hint of exhaustion. "I've seen you make some really snap judgments lately. Don't think I don't know about you taking in Cordello's killer with that shit excuse for evidence."

"But you said it yourself, captain," Danny defended desperately. "I took in his killer. Like, I _got _the guy. That's the important part, right? And I can assure you that I'm not at all complacent!" It was his first time being accused of such a thing and the word already began to leave a tinny taste in his mouth. Complacent felt like one of the harder-hitting insults he'd ever endured, and he wasn't sure if that was due to its meaning or the source, a man he truly admired. "I went on my instinct, which you've always praised."

The slight nod from his superior eased some of the tension in Danny's chest. "You're right, I've always said that your instinct was killer. But that not enough, Danny, and you know that. And none of that 'flying by the seat of your pants' bullshit is going to work this time. This was a beloved guy that was more than likely going to be the next Mayor. All eyes are going to be on us and we can't afford for you to go off of some random gut feeling you have and take some guy in because he gave you lip or you just 'had a bad feeling.' No, we've got to be extra careful with this one. I was actually thinking of putting L-"

"No!" Danny interjected with an outburst and a raise of his hand. "Please, sir, I implore you. Do _not_ say Lang's name. Just…no."

"Why not? Lang's an excellent detective."

"I won't dispute that, but…" He could physically feel the pride in his chest ache at the thought of him pleading in any way. There weren't a great many things he felt like he was truly above, but begging had always been one of them. However, he had reached a certain level of desperation – either desperate to prove himself or desperate to prevent Charlie from nabbing the assignment, he wasn't sure which was greater – that made it a little easier to humble himself.

"Captain, nobody out there wants this case as much as I do. I can guarantee that. I'll be careful. I'll be thorough. I'll go over all of the evidence with a fine tooth comb, sleep at my desk, and live and breathe this assignment. I'll do whatever it takes to not only earn it, but also crack this thing efficiently –"

"And professionally?" Captain Shulman inserted with raised eyebrows. Danny took that as a favorable sign.

"Absolutely!" he confirmed hopefully. "I will be a hundred percent professional. Just give me a chance. Please."

Danny watched his superior lean back in his chair and consider him silently. It was certainly unnerving, but he maintained his confident stance in hopes that he could still present himself as the best option. The office was so silent as he waited for an answer that he eventually realized that he had been holding his breath. Though his head was beginning to feel a little light from the sudden stop in oxygen flow, he refused to allow their direct eye contact to falter.

Finally, Marc spoke. "Okay."

Danny let out his breath in a rush of relief. "Seriously?"

Marc nodded. "Yup, the case is yours." Marc grabbed the file on top of his desk and held it out for the taking. "I believe you when you want it badly."

Beaming, Danny quickly accepted the file and shook Marc's hand firmly. "Thank you, sir. I'll make you proud, I promise."

"I'm sure you will," Marc replied with a final shake of his hand and a knowing smile of his own. "And I also believe that you'll do whatever is necessary to make sure this case is handled properly and solved efficiently."

Danny prepared to affirm the assertion when he noticed the familiar, withholding expression of his leader. His eyebrows were raised, the left corner of his mouth was upturned just slightly, and his head was tipped downward as he peered at him over his glasses. It was the classic look that preceded undesirable news. Given their past and the nature of the conversation, Danny had a pretty solid idea of the direction they were headed. He immediately began to oppose the unspoken idea.

"Captain, no," he said firmly.

"Danny, you just said you would do anything to get this assignment. Was that a lie?"

"No, of course not! But, c'mon…I don't need the dead weight!"

"It's not called 'dead weight,' it's called a partner. And perhaps you do need one. Maybe having another person there will curb some of your 'shoot now, ask questions later' tendencies."

"I don't need a babysitter to hold me accountable."

"It's not about holding you accountable, Danny. It's about having a little added perspective to help us get this case closed as quickly and painlessly as possible! Look, you said that you'd do whatever it takes. Well, this is it! This is what it takes. I'm willing to take a chance on you, but I've got a whole department to think of as well. So you're gonna do this with a partner or you're gonna go back to your desk while I assign this to someone else."

Danny placed his hands on his hips and looked to the ground with a smoldering feeling of defeat. He's had very few actual partners throughout his career, the preference to work alone always overshadowing any need for camaraderie. It was much simpler to rely on his gut and street knowledge rather than confer with another person and potentially be led astray. He hated this. Still, it was the only thing standing between him and a victory he was certain would gain him just enough notoriety to get him ahead. He bit back the urge to curse and accepted his fate.

"Alright, I'll do this with a partner," he agreed in a low, almost unintelligible voice. It was enough of an affirmative for Marc.

"Great, I know just who to team you up with," he said as he picked up his phone and glanced at the directory taped to the top of his desk.

"Please don't let it be Lang. I'm sure this seems like an ideal opportunity for us to learn to work together and find some sort of friendship –"

"Danny, I honestly couldn't give a shit if you two are friends," the exhausted older gentleman huffed as he punched a few numbers. "I'm more concerned with getting some murderous asshole off of my streets and pairing you with a person who's gonna keep you grounded long enough to make that happen." There was a beat before Marc spoke directly into the receiver. "Good morning. Please come see me in my office." After only a second he placed he phone back on the stand. "Now, Danny, the second I see you not treating this with the amount of care this requires, I'm taking you off of the case and chaining you to your desk. I mean it."

Nodding, Danny replied, "I hear you, captain."

"I seriously hope you do. I want to believe that you'll be at your best with this one. Just don't let me down."

Danny opened his mouth to respond when a light knock at the door preempted him.

"Come in," Marc called out. The door immediately opened and Danny turned around to face the new visitor. Upon seeing her face, Danny suppressed the groan that threatened to snake to the surface.

She had only been there for less than two weeks and while they hadn't had a proper conversation since she arrived, he had heard enough in passing to know that she was unlike any cop he had ever interacted with. Most were stoic, hardened by years of long hours and difficult work while dealing with some of the most deplorable people society had to offer. This woman, on the other hand, positively beamed sunshine in a way that Danny considered distracting. Her colorful attire of powder blue slacks, a purple, black and blue patterned blouse, and a royal purple collarless leather jacket came across as an affront to the precinct's dress code, even though Danny wasn't sure that the code actually addressed bright colors or daring patterns. The woman's long black hair framed her face, dark brown and radiating with a certain optimism that he found a little nauseating. Danny had long concluded that she was annoying. Quite beautiful, but very annoying.

_No_, Danny thought. _Not the chipper Indian girl. She can't be the person I'm expected_ to –

"You wanted to see me, Captain Shulman?" the woman's voice chirped. "And I've gotta say, the morning meetings here are seriously exciting. There wasn't a whole lot going on at the precinct I transferred from. I think we actually focused an entire meeting on spell checking our incident reports. Snooze City, am I right?"

Danny wordlessly turned back towards his boss once more with pleading eyes only to find a satisfied, torturous grin on his face. Marc's arms were crossed over his chest resolutely.

"Danny Castellano," he said, "meet your partner, Detective Mindy Lahiri."

* * *

**A/N: Well, hi! I've never written anything this AU. Ever. I'm hoping that I've found a new, fun way to incorporate these amazing characters.**

**For those who are Josh fans...sorry. Hope you ready anyway!**

**Please leave a review/comment and let me know what you think! I appreciate them so, so much.**

**Hollaatchyagirl,**

**Phunky**


	2. Chapter 2

Standing in between his boss and the unrelentingly happy woman standing at the door, Danny couldn't shake the feeling that this arrangement was entirely unfair. It felt like he was being punished for wanting to excel. Mindy had only been around for eleven days, max. How was she already getting the chance to work on such an important case when he had to fight tooth and nail to be offered the same assignment? Everything in him wanted to argue against the captain's decision, but he harbored enough sense to know that now was not the time for further opposition.

He almost forgot that Mindy was standing there until she spoke. "Just to be clear, you just said I was his partner, right?" She was pointing her manicured finger towards Danny while stepping further into the room. "Does that mean you're giving me an assignment right now?"

"Indeed I am," Captain Shulman confirmed. "I'm putting you on the Daniels case alongside Detective Castellano. I think you two will make a great team."

Danny couldn't help but look at the jubilant woman and wonder if that was actually true. He was stricken with the sudden image of them riding in their cruiser with her chattering incessantly in the front seat. The scene in his head changed to them at a nondescript crime scene with her palming the evidence and asking a litany of irrelevant questions. He was already irked and they hadn't even left the office.

"Wow, this is…" Mindy sputtered for a moment as her joy seemed to be clouding her ability to select the right words. "This is a huge honor, sir. Thank you so much! And Danny!" She pivoted her body just enough to be able to playful smack the back of her hand on his upper arm. "Working with you is going to be really cool! Maybe you can show me some of your scary interrogation tactics!"

"I don't know if I'd call them scary," Danny quickly corrected her, fearful that his superior might mistake it as some sort of abuse of power.

"That's not what I heard," she continued with an impressed grin. "I heard you made the Cordello killer cry a little, guilt-tripped him with his dead grandmother –"

"Hey, Mindy!" Danny interrupted with a raised voice. "Do you mind if I talk with the Captain for a quick second?"

Though she looked briefly taken aback, Mindy shrugged and agreed. "Yeah, sure."

"Uh, Decetive Lahiri?" Marc interjected kindly. "Go ahead and ask Betsy to make you a copy of the Daniels file. You can look over the contents before you and Danny decide on an approach."

Mindy nodded and flashed one more bright smile before exiting the office, making sure to close the door being her. Danny could already feel some of the anxiety easing off of him. Before he could say anything, the captain was already glaring at him expectantly.

"She hasn't been assigned to the case for more than a minute. You can't _possibly_ already have a complaint, Castellano."

He did. Quite a few, in fact. Nonetheless, he decided to choose his words carefully.

"I have no complaints," he lied, "but I'm…_curious _as to how you know you can trust her to handle such an important assignment after only knowing her for two weeks."

Shaking his head, Marc replied, "She may be new to our precinct, but she's not exactly fresh out of the academy, you know. Mindy is preceded by a sterling arrest record and is quite an accomplished detective. And my memory may be a little hazy, but I seem to recall me putting you on a major case not long after your start. How is this any different?"

Both men knew there was no answer for that. Marc continued.

"I'm taking a chance on her just like I took a chance on you. And as cliché as this may sound, both of you could actually learn from each other. Seniority isn't everything."

Danny's opinion on that sentiment differed greatly, but he chose to keep that to himself. His superior was resolute in his decision.

"Alright, I understand," he conceded. "Thanks again for the opportunity. I'm gonna take a look at this stuff and see just where we are."

"Good man," Marc replied dismissively. "Oh, and tell Lang that I don't need to see him anymore."

The reminder of his initial hurdle uplifted him just enough to give a little smirk. "Will do, sir."

* * *

Danny poured over the few items in the case file once more, paying close attention to the photographs of the scene and body. The early moments of an investigation inspired the same feeling of standing next to a blank canvas, unless there was an overwhelming amount of evidence. The possibilities were endless, especially for someone who was a public figure like Josh Daniels. He'd start at the Grandview Hotel, the location of the fundraising gala the victim hosted for himself hours before his death. It was going to take a while to whittle down the number of possible suspects, considering the amount of people he had interacted with that night as well as on a daily basis. With a total lack of witness accounts this was going to be significantly harder than his previous case. He wished that he had infinite time alone to collect his thoughts and really focus on an approach. A sigh hissed from his lips as soon as he realized that it wasn't a possibility this time around.

"So I was thinking," an excited voice materialized, cutting through his concentration. Startled, he looked up to find Mindy at his desk, a brand new file in his hands. She already looked mildly apologetic. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you."

"You didn't _scare_ me, alright?" Danny insisted, unable to filter out the annoyance in his voice. "You briefly startled me, but it's fine. What do you need?"

Mindy gave a slight shrug. "I just thought that we could grab a quick celebratory coffee from that bakery a few blocks south of here. You know, Trinity Bakery? I have it on good authority that they give the biggest muffins to all law enforcement. We can stop there real quick on our way to the Grandview Hotel."

"Okay, we definitely don't have a ton of time to stop –" Danny cut his sentence short and furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Wait, how do you know that we're starting there? I never told you that."

It was Mindy's turn to look confused. "Well, we'd obviously start there. That's where he was not too long before he died, right? Clearly, we'd need to look at the security footage."

It was a fairly obvious start, but Danny still felt a twinge of shock that she felt comfortable enough to assume the reins. Frankly, he felt that she was a little too comfortable.

"That's pretty presumptuous of you, newbie," he countered. "What makes you think we shouldn't head to the actual scene and check things out for ourselves?"

"What point would there be to that?" Mindy retorted as she pulled a nearby chair from an empty desk closer to him and sat down. "The one report mentions that the security cameras in that particular garage were old and not maintained, so it not like there's any footage to commandeer. The pictures tell us everything we need to know right now."

"Like what?"

Mindy narrowed her eyes at her partner suspiciously. "Okay, I can't tell if you actually can't see what I'm seeing or if this is a 'test the new girl' mind trick, but I'll play along either way. Okay, if you look at the picture of the body, there's a ton of gravel and dust surrounding him. No footprints, no real signs of any sort of tussle or struggle. If he were shot then that would be excusable, but come on, a _knife_? The killer would have to get close enough and actually work a little to do any damage, especially since the wounds are in the front. Plus, the blood is a dead giveaway." She pointed out the mass of red staining the side of Josh's shirt. "This was definitely a dump job. Look at how the blood from all the wounds gathers at his side. He was clearly laying on that side originally, then dumped on his back later."

Danny was not only speechless, but annoyed beyond reason. How dare she be gratingly optimistic _and_ competent? He especially didn't like her ability to spot details that he had managed to overlook a number of times.

"So did I pass your cryptic-y test?"

Danny rolled his eyes. "My test wasn't weird," he argued, choosing to keep up the façade. "It was my way of making sure you were paying close attention."

"Which I think I proved pretty well. So I _did_ pass, right?"

"Yeah, kid, you passed."

Mindy's eyes widened and an amused grin swept across her face. "Uh, did you just call me 'kid'? I can't be more than a few years younger than you. That's so weird."

"Are you always this combative?"

"I dunno. Probably. Are you always this inexplicably grumpy?"

Danny squeezed his eyes shut and exhaled slowly in an attempt to tamp down his mounting frustration. Admittedly he wanted her to be more of a timid pushover in order for him to easily gain control of the investigation. He was quickly realizing that she was nothing of the sort. It was something that he was already growing to loathe, even if a tiny part of him respected her for it. He stood with a groan and grabbed his leather jacket off the back of his chair.

"Look, let's just head to the hotel and get the security footage."

Mindy nodded her head and stood quickly. "And how about the coffee?'

"I don't really drink coffee," Danny replied abruptly.

She followed closely on his heels as he slipped the jacket on and headed out the door towards the small parking garage. "Okay, then how about a celebratory slice during lunch? I haven't narrowed down my favorite place yet, but I can't shake the feeling that you know just where to go."

"Why are you so hell-bent on celebrating the opportunity for us to do what we're paid to do?" he challenged gruffly. "What's there to celebrate?"

They reached his department-issued Chevy Trailblazer, splitting off to their respective sides. The loud click of the locks masked her scoff.

"Excuse me for wanting to interrupt our hunt for a possibly crazed murderer with a little positivity!" Mindy called out haughtily from the other side. "Besides, partnerships are a big deal. That's the person you spend most of your day with, support, argue with...we could come out of this becoming best friends!"

Rather then let the words "I doubt it" slip through his screwed lips, he settled into the driver's seat and slipped the key into the ignition. Mindy continued her thought as she entered the SUV.

"Like my last partner, Maggie. One solved case led to another, then another, and the next thing you know, I'm a bridesmaid at her wedding! Working partnerships are important."

"I can guarantee that you won't be a bridesmaid at my wedding, should that day ever come."

"You don't know that. I could totally be a female groomswoman. That's a thing now, you know."

He shook his head as he pulled out of the darkened parking garage and into the mid-morning light. In the short time he's known her he'd already managed to develop a Mindy Lahiri-specific migraine - a dull ache that existed just at his left temple and slowly crescendoed until it reached a sharp, painful climax just before backing off. The occurrence, Danny observed, was much like the source: short, but mighty bothersome. What he found even more groan-inducing was her intense energy that came across as a blaring interruption to his routinely quiet day. He _liked_ silence and routine. Why couldn't he get a partner that understood that? Charlie might have been a nightmare to work with in just about every other aspect these days, but at least he was a man who also appreciated a quiet environment.

Danny did little to disturb the silence in the car as he navigated through a number of back roads leading to the hotel. Mindy looked straight ahead, not saying a word. _Maybe she got the hint_, Danny thought.

"So, do you usually ride in total silence?"

Danny rolled his eyes. _Of course she didn't_. "Yeah, usually."

"No music?"

"I listen to music at the end of my shift as a reward for a hard day's work."

When there was no follow-up sound, Danny peered over quickly to see a pair of brown, stunned eyes. Her mouth was ajar until she finally let out something that sounded like a cross between a cough and a laugh. "You are a strange, strange man."

"Well, I'm sorry if I'd rather not pollute my car with the annoying, toothless pop I'm sure you're into," he fired back. "What, with your Catherine Perrys and your Justin Biebers and such."

"Okay, I'm fairly certain you meant Katy Perry," Mindy corrected firmly. "She's everywhere and I find it very hard to believe that you don't know her actual name. And who's being the presumptuous one now? I never said I was into any of that!"

Danny held onto any remaining biting remarks as the hotel came into sight. The canopied walkway and the doorman stationed at the entrance represented an end to a fruitless conversation. He said nothing as he eased the vehicle next to the curb.

"Do you want to know what music I _actually_ listen to?" Mindy pressed, utterly indignant.

"Sorry, working here," he replied, a smug grin playing at his lips as he parked in front of the hotel. Getting the last word at thirty-six years old still felt as good as it did when he was a teenager. He exited the car and immediately headed inside without waiting for Mindy to catch up. He attributed some of his haste to his eagerness to get to the task at hand, but he mainly wanted to put some distance between himself and the woman who had been unceremoniously dropped into his world and seemed to have _so much to say_. Mindy's quickened footsteps could be heard behind him as she worked to keep up with his authoritative pace. The uniformed man at the door flashed them both a smile and held open the door gallantly.

"Welcome to the Grandview -"

"Thank you," Danny interrupted almost curtly he as strode into the lobby.

"Thank you, sir!" Mindy's voice exuded false cheer, more than likely overcompensating for his bluntness. Her already constant need to balance him out - be it the silence in his car, his lack of pageantry regarding their new partnership, or even his tone of voice when speaking to others - irked him to his core. None of this was an issue when he worked alone and now he had somebody latched onto him, questioning every little decision has worked with him for over a decade. While he never intentionally set out to be rude to her, he could still feel a gnawing resentment towards his new partner.

Danny had no time, however, to address any of it as they steadily approached the front desk. An older woman in a dark business suit stood next to a younger uniformed man while pointing something out on glowing computer monitor. He tapped on the marble counter with his fingertips while he dug into his back pocket for his badge. Both the woman and the young man looked up with welcoming expressions.

"Good morning, uh..." Danny searched the nametag of the woman, who had a look of authority about her. The word "manager" was engraved in dark, loopy letters under her name. "Doris," he read as he finally pulled out the simple wallet containing his badge. "I'm Detective Castellano. Your hotel hosted a fundraiser event last night and I need to take a look at your security footage."

Some of the cheer drained from Doris' face and was replaced by pity. "Oh, yes. We were certainly sad to hear about his tragic murder. How awful! Yes, of course you can look at our cameras."

"And I'm Detective Lahiri, by the way," Mindy piped up loudly. Danny turned and immediately noticed the tight-lipped smile on her face pair with steely eyes. He had known her for less than an hour, but he already recognized this as the expression she donned while struggling to hold back her aggravation. Despite his own stubbornness, he couldn't deny that it was a little intimidating. "I will also be taking a look at this footage, alongside my colleague here." She clapped him on the shoulder aggressively, adding more force than necessary. Touching, he remembered, was another thing he managed to avoid with the absence of a partner.

"Of course," Doris responded with a look of confusion. "Let me take you both to the security office. Give me just a moment. I'll meet you around the desk." She disappeared through the door behind her while Danny and Mindy maintained their forward gaze. The gentleman stood awkwardly at his computer with a faltering grin as if he were trained to smile, no matter what. Though he wasn't looking directly at her, he could still feel the tension emanating off of Mindy. He hoped that the discomfort would manifest in a silent car ride back to the station.

They hear a door click open to their left. Doris's head popped into view from the doorway before waving the pair over. Danny and Mindy followed silently.

"The room is this way, in the back," she informed them as she led them in a quick pace. Her sensible heels clicked against the linoleum. "I can our security go on break if you'd rather view the video in private."

"Private would be best," Mindy confirmed. The professionalism in her voice was something of a surprise to Danny, who was already used to the excited squeak that was prevalent when she spoke.

Danny could see Doris shaking her head from behind. "That poor man," she said ruefully. "He seemed like such a nice gentleman. And the night was so beautiful and without incident…a perfect evening! Truth be told, I still probably would have voted for Christina Porter, but still…what a nice, handsome young man."

They reached the penultimate door at the end of the hallway. Doris announced their arrival as she keyed into the room. The wall of small monitors bathed the dimly lit room with a grayish glow. A guard sat at a small switch board, eating a bagel and glancing back and forth between screens.

"Evan, these are Detectives Castellano and Lahiri," she introduced, stepping aside to allow them to enter. "They need to take a look at the video from last night. None of it's been archived yet, right?"

The guard quickly swallowed his breakfast before replying, "No, ma'am."

"Good, then please show them how they can review the different cameras…" she trailed off for a moment, then turned to Danny. "I'm sorry, which surveillance would you need to look over?"

"Anything that shows us who was in and out of here during the gala," Danny clarified. "If there are entrances that vendors or guests used then we would need to look at those. The ballroom, the main entrance…anything that relevant to the victim's event, we need to see."

Doris' eyes grew a little rounder. "That's a lot of cameras. And the set up took almost all day. You'll be here for a long time, detective."

"You're right, it is a lot of video," Mindy affirmed. "Which is why we're going to take just a few minutes to look through some of it now, then we're going to take all the video in as part of the investigation. We won't be more than half an hour."

Though Doris still looked skeptical, she had Evan the Guard cue the different videos and promised to talk to the head of security about ways of getting them the documentation they needed. Even gave a quick tutorial on navigating the switchboard before he followed Doris out of the room. Once the door clicked shut, Mindy immediately rounded on Danny with a look of fury.

"What the hell is your damage, man?" she hissed, obviously not wanting to be overheard by the staff.

Danny immediately went on the defensive. "My _damage_? What the hell are you talking about?"

"You know what I'm talking about! I've been nothing but nice to you from the moment we met and you have been an absolute dick the entire time! I get it, you're the tough Long Island cop –"

"Staten Island," he corrected protectively.

"Staten Island cop who's neeeever had a partner and oh no! Here's some woman crouching in on your territory –"

"Okay, enough!" Danny intercepted with a raise of his hand. "This has nothing to do with you being a woman and everything to do with you busting my balls about every little thing I do!"

Mindy rolled her eyes and threw up her hands. "Danny, questioning in no way equates to ball busting! Look, you don't want me here…whatever. Point is, the captain assigned me to this case the same way he assigned you. I'm here. I'm not fucking going anywhere, so deal with it and stop being a baby about it, _partner_."

Danny's jaw clenched as he took a long, deep breath. It had been a long time since anyone has told him off the way Mindy just had, so he really wasn't sure just how to react. She wasn't wrong; he had been pretty rude to her. But he didn't feel like anything he said nor did warranted an apology.

"Look, let's just take a look at the surveillance, alright?" he posed through clenched teeth.

"Fine," Mindy hissed, taking a seat before one of many monitors. "You skim through the entranceway and lobby stuff and I'll scan the ballroom."

"Fine." Danny situated himself next to Mindy with a huff before training his eyes on the screen. A majority of what he viewed looked like the general bustle of setting up. He fast-forwarded through dead air while he noticed the silent focus of Mindy (aside from the occasional comment on somebody's attire). Every once in a while she would press her button to speed up her footage.

"Looks like a pretty standard night," Danny said out loud, not necessarily to Mindy. His observation was returned with nothing more than a small grunt of acknowledgment. Did he mean for that to come across as an olive branch or sorts? He wasn't sure, but if it was then Mindy had essentially rebuffed it. That didn't sit well with him. Before he could evaluate his intentions, be spoke again a little more decisively than before.

"I wonder how much money was raised at this thing, y'know? Daniels must have made a killing."

"Probably," she replied shortly.

Feeling sufficiently rejected (_Which is fine by me_, he thought. _The less conversation, the better_), he returned to his screen and watched silently. A few moments passed before Mindy spoke again.

"Oh, **wow**," Mindy blurted loudly, causing Danny to lean over and peer at the seemingly calm cluster of party attendees on the video.

"What? You see something?"

"Nothing major," she replied with a sarcastic wave of her hand. "Just the sleazy would-be-could-be Mayor totally scamming on this woman on the sly!" She pointed at the screen excitedly as Danny slid his chair over to get a closer look. "Check out where his hand is! You can't place your hand that low on someone's back and still call it a friendly gesture. Where's his model of a wife?"

Looking at the screen Danny could immediately see her point. Though the chatter looked fairly innocent, the hand was damning. "I can't argue with that."

"And his pinky his grazing her ass!" she continued to squeal. "God, does every politician have to be such a slime ball?"

At that, Danny leaned forward and took a closer look at the woman. He could only see her profile, but the face definitely looked familiar. And her hair was the same shade of red as…

"Hey, I know that woman!" Danny cried with a point. "She works at the Calico Club on 30th!"

"Ew, that swanky bar where all those gross sugar daddies go?"

"They have a really great Reuben there. Anyways, she's a hostess there. Her name is Heather. What the heck is she doing at a politician's fundraiser? There's no way she can believably be hobnobbing with these snobs."

Mindy finally turned her head towards him with a judgmental tilt. "I don't think it's fair to judge a woman you barely know. Why is it so hard to believe that a server could be invested in local politics?"

"She actually asked me if Shaun of the Dead was based on a true story. I'm not questioning the credibility of a server being interested in politics. I'm questioning _this_ server, specifically."

"Okay, fair," she conceded. "Well, judging by that wandering hand, I think we can guess why she's there. God, how cliché is the whole 'politician and a mistress' thing?"

Then it clicked. Danny knew who killed Josh Daniels. Sort of.

"We've gotta find Heather," Danny stated.

"I agree."

"So you think she might have done it, too?"

Mindy's head snapped back in surprise. "Huh? Did I miss something, like her suddenly wielding a butcher knife in the middle of a photo op? Here, let me rewind –"

"No, but c'mon…dead, good looking politician? This screams murderous jealous mistress. If it wasn't her, then it was the murderous angry wife. I guarantee it."

"Okay, buddy." Mindy stood. "Where did you get that sweeping, slightly misogynistic generalization from? Was it the slew of murdered politician cases you've had to solve throughout your career or a recycled plot from the Young and the Restless?"

"Hey, I've seen plenty of powerful men go down this way in our line of work," Danny defended. "They all end the same exact way. And I'm going by my gut, which hasn't failed me yet, alright? I say we track her down, take her in and sweat her out until she eventually confesses. Trust me, my killer intuition has solved the last six cases."

Mindy closed her eyes and exhaled gently. "Look. At my last precinct, one of the detectives 'followed his gut,'" she emphasized with air quotes, "just like you. Someone was stealing cows from some of the local farms –"

"Cows?!" Danny exclaimed incredulously.

"Shut it, I'm telling a story," she commanded. "There were all these cow thefts and one of the detectives, Casey, overheard this man at a bar threaten to take his neighbor's cow if he continued to let their dog poop on his doorstep. Casey took the guy in for questioning because, you know, his gut and all, interrogated him, found out that had a solid alibi, then got **fired** when the man sued the department for trauma. Yes, we're talking about _cows_, Danny, and even he had more evidence than you do right now. Don't you think we should take a little more time to discern possible suspects with a murder?"

Once again, Mindy was questioning Danny on his method. This time he was less upset. She may have had a point, though he was reluctant to admit it.

"I'm telling you I'm right, but whatever," he argued half-heartedly.

"If I'm wrong and she turns out to be crazy guilty, I owe you a drink," Mindy promised. "But let's not be so hasty to name a suspect, just because. I mean, a smug politician with that annoyingly perfect face? Not trying to disrespect the dead or anything, but I'm sure there was no shortage of people who wanted him dead. I've seen pictures of him that have made me want to punch him in his face, you know?"

The corner of Danny's mouth quirked upward involuntarily. He never minded a little dark humor. "Yeah, you might be right on that one."

Mindy nodded proudly. "All I'm saying is that we should definitely talk to Heather, but let's not go in there guns blazing, so to speak. We'll move in if she begins to look guilty, but let's not jump to that, despite what your gut might be saying. Fair?"

He looked down to find her holding out her hand for a deal-solidifying shake. She wasn't proposing anything outrageous. With a sigh, he shook her hand firmly.

"Fine," he agreed. "Let's talk to Heather."


	3. Chapter 3

Upon returning to the car Mindy presented Danny with the idea of contacting the Calico Club with a fake reservation.

"You say she served you once," Mindy explained. "We can request to be seated in her area and get the last name that way. It's believable and in the event that your suspicions are correct and she _does_ have something to do with Josh's murder-"

"- she won't get tipped off about a pair of cops looking for her and duck out of sight," Danny supplied knowingly. "No, I get it. Go for it, kid."

Danny heard her mumble "Ugh, again with the 'kid' stuff" under her breath and Google searched for the number on her phone. Once found, she tapped the send button while he grabbed the department's tablet from the armrest compartment of the Trailblazer. He managed to pull up the search database just as she began to speak.

"Hi! I'd like to make a reservation for a small party that should be dining around lunch time," she said brightly. "And we'd like to request a specific server. Let's see, she has reddish hair, pretty…I think her name might be Heather? She told me her last name once before, but I can't remember it at the moment." There was a pause as Danny waited for Mindy to speak again. When she did, there was a brief sigh of victory. "Duwolski? Yeah, that sounds right…She's not there today, you say?...Oh, how horrible. Okay, that may change things. I'll talk to my group and call back shortly. Thank you."

She hung up the phone. "Heather Duwolski called out of work due to a death in the family. Pretty interesting. Uncommon last name. Should be easy to search!"

"Yeah, if I can spell it," he murmured as he entered his first guess.

Mindy leaned back in her seat with a sigh. "So what do you think are the chances that she'll have a parking violation or something?"

Danny sounded out the last name phonetically once more and tried a different spelling. After only a moment a mug shot materialized on the right side of the screen. Heather looked at him from the device with glassy red eyes and gently smudged make-up.

"There she is," Danny announced with a sarcastic fondness. "Drunk and disorderly. Arrested last Halloween."

Shaking her head and clicking her tongue, Mindy responded, "Halloween in the city: a hot-bodied girl's kryptonite. Well, where can we find her?"

He scanned the basic information on the left side of the profile and read off the address. As soon as he did, the realization of the significance of her address struck him. "Holy shit. She's right around the corner from the parking garage where Daniels was dumped."

"Shut up!"

"I wouldn't be shocked if the garage was actually shared by her building," he added as he quickly started the engine. Before slowly pulling away from the curb he looked towards Mindy and was met with a look of mild disgust.

"What?"

"You could look a little less smug, Danny," she said while securing her seatbelt. "None of this means anything just yet."

"I didn't realize I was being smug," Danny shrugged, though he was beginning to feel telltale ache in his right cheek usually brought on by a self-satisfied, half-formed smile. "But if I'm right..."

"God, I know, I know." Though she sounded annoyed, Danny caught the lightning quick upward flick of the corner of her mouth. "I wouldn't get my hopes up, though. Dumping a body a few feet away from where you sleep? Nobody's that stupid."

* * *

After getting briefly lost in a maze of interconnected hallways and random stairways, the detectives finally stood before Heather's apartment door. Danny pounded on it with his closed fist without a thought, hearing it rattle against the frame. Mindy's head whipped in his direction, her eyes wide.

"Whoa!" she exclaimed in a purposely hushed tone. "Ease up on the perp knock!"

"What are you talking about? 'Perp knock?'"

"You're knocking on her door like she's already guilty! Just..." she motioned her hands towards her body, indicating that he should pull back some of his intensity.

"I'll try, but I can't make any -"

His sentence was truncated by the door swinging open to reveal a woman in a disheveled t-shirt and non-matching shorts. Her dark red hair was thoroughly mussed and her cheeks were tear-stained.

"Can I help you?" Heather asked in a timid, watery voice.

"Miss Duwolski, I'm Detective Castellano and this," he nodded his head in Mindy's direction, "is Detective Lahiri. You attended a fundraiser gala for Josh Daniels last night. We were hoping you could assist us by answering some questions."

Heather sniffled and her face crumbled just a fraction before she stood aside and allowed them both to enter. Danny stepped into the small studio apartment and scanned the area inconspicuously, as he did anytime he entered unfamiliar territory. The cramped space held a few pieces of dark furniture and was devoid of clutter. It looked barely lived in, aside from the vintage looking bedding on the queen-sized bed and a stuffed lion leaning precariously against her pillow.

"Can I get you both something drink?" she asked, her voice still thick. Her hosting abilities seemed to have carried over into her private life.

"No, thank you," Mindy responded kindly. "We won't be long."

The three found seating where they could: Heather sat on the edge of her bed, Mindy on a small arm chair, and Danny perched himself on a bar stool sitting next to a rather large television.

"Miss Duwolski -"

"You can call me Heather. It's fine."

"Thank you," Danny replied graciously. "Heather...you were at the Grandview Hotel last night, correct?"

"Yeah, I was there to support Jo - Mr. Daniels," she corrected as she swiped her left eye with her fingertips.

"Did the night go well?'

"I thought so," she shrugged. "Everyone there seemed to like him."

"Was there anyone who looked suspicious or upset?" Mindy asked with a lean forward.

Heather shook her head slowly. "Not from what I saw. To be honest, though, I wasn't really paying attention."

It was already beginning to feel like a dead-end conversation. Danny watched her as she shifted uncomfortably, pulling down the hem of her shirt while she crossed her legs. She wasn't making eye contact with either him or Mindy. It was hard to tell whether she actually wanted to say more or if she was actively trying to look unknowledgeable so they would stop asking her questions. He looked at Mindy, who was giving him a pointed look. Danny took that as he cue to dig deeper.

"Heather, are you okay?" Danny asked, trying to sound believably concerned. "You look upset."

He noticed an almost imperceptible nod of approval from Mindy.

"I'm fine," the redhead answered unconvincingly. "Just not feeling well, is all."

"Well, you must be shaken a little, considering that the man you were just in the presence of last night was found in your complex's garage." The way Mindy could present a hard-hitting question with such tenderness was almost commendable. Still, Danny wished they could just get to the point. _Patience_, he thought, _is so damn inconvenient_.

Mindy's approach, however, didn't take long to work. Heather's eyes darted to her feet and the grip on her shirt tightened as the tears fell freely. "It's pretty terrifying, yeah."

"Did you know the victim at all?"

"I was, uh...I supported him."

"Like, you supported his platform? Or, like, you supported him as a friend?"

"His politics, I guess," she answered with a tone of irritability.

Mindy smiled. "Which of his issues spoke to you the most?"

As Heather visibly stiffened and her chest expanded with a held breath, Danny braced himself for the lie.

"Schools!" she blurted. "He talked a lot about wanting better schools."

"Oh!" Mindy perked up. "Do you have kids?"

"Hell no. I hate kids." Heather closed her eyes and tightened her lips, appearing to regret her brief moment of candor. Danny thought she looked so pitiful that he found it difficult to get truly upset.

But he had exhausted his patience. While he wouldn't deny that Mindy's approach did accelerate the conversation, skirting the issue at hand was never his style - because, frankly, he was no good at it. He pinched the bridge of his nose and tried to keep his tone firm without terrifying their potential witness (_Or killer_, he added internally. _Still not sure_.)

"Okay, Heather listen," he began. "All we're trying to do is catch the person that did this. You can help us do that by being a hundred percent truthful. Holding back isn't doing Josh any favors. We need to you to fill in some of these blanks for us so that we can do our job. Plus, him being found so close to you...we need to make sure that you're not in danger, too."

That seemed to spark something significant in her as her eyes grew and she sat up straighter. "You think I could be in danger?"

Danny gave a slight nonchalant shrug of his shoulders. "You tell us."

He chanced a look at his partner and wondered what she thought of his tactic. Her focus, however, was trained on Heather as they waited for her to respond. When he returned his eyes to the bed the woman was crying a little harder. He was beginning to feel intrusive. His years spent at an emotionally draining job still hadn't made him comfortable with seeing a woman cry.

Heather wiped her eyes and steadied the staccato in her breath. "He was a friend."

"A friend?" Mindy echoed with raised eyebrows.

The woman huffed. "We started as friends. He used to stop by Calico for lunch and we'd see each other all the time. One thing led to another..." She trailed and finally made eye contact with both of the detectives before rushing to redeem herself against any possible judgment. "His wife was so terrible to him! I just thought he would leave her after time, but then he started campaigning and she was always standing next to him with that phony smile of hers. Then he'd visit and tell me how much he wished we could be together and how I should be standing next to him instead of that witch!"

She propped her elbows on her knees and ducked her head to allow for her fingers to run through her messy hair. After she caught her breath, she continued. "I thought it would be cute to surprise him at his big event at the hotel. I wasn't going to do anything crazy!" She assured. "I just wanted him to see that I _could_ be there for him if he wanted, you know? I wanted him to see my face and maybe...this sounds stupid, I know."

_Very stupid_, Danny thought. Then he sighed and shook his head. "No, it doesn't sound stupid."

"Well, Josh thought it was." She wrapped her arms around her midsection. "He came over a few hours later and yelled at me for showing up. I yelled at him for not leaving his wife. He said that he couldn't leave her and then it just spawned into this big fight. He walked out and that's the last time I saw him." By the end her sentence she was sobbing. "Our last moments together were of us _fighting_. I just want that time back. I shouldn't have gone to that stupid gala. Shit, I was soooo _underdressed_."

Hiccuping, Heather wiped under her nose with her knuckle. "So anyway, I went to my sister's place and spent the night there. I found out about Josh on my way here."

"So you were with your sister the whole night?" Mindy asked, here eyes quickly darting to Danny before returning forward. Heather nodded.

So she had an alibi. That was unplanned, but Danny remembered that there was still a wife to consider. A mistress materializing at a public event might be just the catalyst to push someone over the edge.

"I can't believe those cameras don't work."

The sudden statement snapped Danny out of his train of thought. "What was that?"

"The cameras in the garage," Heather expounded. "Those cameras don't work. That's what the news said, anyway. You'd have the guy in cuffs if those cameras were working like they were supposed to."

"You didn't know about the cameras?" Danny asked. For reasons he couldn't quite identify, he hadn't considered the possibility of that not being common knowledge.

"Nobody did!" she cried. "And I walk through that garage at night all the time! Nothing like this ever happens here. Now I'm going to have to carry around a butcher knife, which means I'll need a bigger purse..."

Mindy stood to her feet. "We'll definitely make sure those cameras get fixed, Heather. And thank you for all your help."

At that, Heather leaned forward and narrowed her eyes like she was about to reveal a piece of salacious gossip. "I bet you anything his wife did it. You watch TV, right? It's allllways the wife."

Danny could hear Mindy quickly stifle her laughter. Hearing his sentiments coming out of another mouth - especially this mouth - added a perspective that he certainly wasn't looking for, but needed nonetheless. His theory suddenly seemed far less sound. He pulled out his wallet and grabbed a card with his contact information printed on the front. "Thank you for your time, Heather. If you have any more information for us, don't hesitate to call." Danny handed her the card as he stood to his feet.

"Thank you, detective," she said with a sniffle as she took the card and walked them to the door.

Danny could feel Mindy's eyes on him as they waited for the elevator. The more he tried to ignore her, the more penetrative her stare felt. Before the elevator could ding its arrival, Danny groaned and looked her way. "What, Mindy?"

"I said nothing," she replied in a dramatically melodic voice.

"Yeah, but you want to."

"When did I say that?"

The doors slid open and they stepped inside simultaneously. Danny pushed the floor level button. "You don't have to say anything. For once, your eyes are doing the talking instead of that mouth."

Her mouth dropped. "What do you mean 'for once?!' You've known me for all of four hours!"

"Has it only been four hours? It feels like you've been bugging me for years."

Danny cringed slightly at his abrasive word choice. He expected her to get offended to the point of yelling or indignant silence. He was relieved when she laughed instead.

"Whatever, dude. Don't think you telling me that you're bothered by me is going to get me to shut up."

Though he wanted to hold back the smile that was now tugging the corners of his lips, her stubbornness amused him. "Alright, go ahead and make fun of me for getting it wrong. Let's just get it over with."

"That's not what I was going to say," she denied. "I mean, you were wrong, but we both know that so there's no need to harp on it. For now."

Another ding sounded once they reached the ground floor. The detectives exited the elevator and immediately turned the corner as they headed towards the side entrance.

"I was actually thinking about some of the stuff Gwen told me about you during my first week."

Eyebrows furrow, Danny said, "Oh?"

"She didn't say anything terrible. She just said that you were kind of a trigger-happy guy – metaphorically speaking – and can be kind of relentless in interrogation. Your intimidating nature is quite legendary, actually."

Danny rolled his eyes and held the door open for Mindy to exit. "Remind me to have a talk with Gwen when we get back to the station."

"No, I don't want to get her in trouble!" she pleaded. "She was the only one who would talk to me when I started. Besides, she said nice things about you, too!" The SUV locks clicked and they slid inside. "I didn't tell you any of that to offend you. I told you because I wanted you to know that I saw none of that up there." She nudged her chin upward to indicate the apartment they had just left. "You were great. It was cool to see you in action."

"…Thanks."

"You're welcome."

They shared a brief moment of silence before Danny started the car. Even if he felt that he didn't really need her approval, a part of him liked having it. When she gave a compliment, it felt genuine.

Clearing his throat, Danny changed the subject. "So, uh…Mrs. Daniels next?"

"Sure, but I've gotta eat first," Mindy warned. "I'm running on little coffee and no breakfast. I wanted to have a muffin with my new partner, but he was having none of that."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. He was kind of a jerk about it, but it's fine."

The teasing glint in her eyes made him feel oddly comfortable. He allowed himself to smile. "Well, I'm sure he feels bad about it."

His eyes remained on the road, but he could still see Mindy gazing at him from his peripheral vision. If he hadn't known any better he would have described the smile she emitted as shy, but that seemed like such an unlikely way to describe anything about her. Before he could think any more of it, she looked forward.

"So we'll have a quick lunch and head back to the station for a bit," Danny announced. "Then we'll pay a visit to Tamra Daniels."


	4. Chapter 4

Before they could fully turn onto Prickly Pear Circle, Mindy was already groaning at the sight of the long line of cars parked outside of the light blue two-story house sitting at the end of the cul de sac. There were also three news trucks stationed across the street, keeping a respectful distance while still managing to look intrusive.

"Are we monsters?" she asked softly. "I've never had to question a person who's freshly grieving before. The closest I've come to having to do something like this was when I interrogated the guy who just lost his house in a fire…and that was only because there was an overwhelming amount of evidence from the start. Video, foot prints, a receipt for tons of lighter fluid in the driveway…he was super shitty at arson."

"C'mon, we're not monsters," Danny replied as he searched for a place to park. "We're doing our job. What are we supposed to do? Just ignore the possibilities here?"

"Not _ignore_, per se. Just…the timing, you know…"

Danny pulled the car behind a Fiat just at the curve of the dead end. "Okay, so how will you feel if it turns out that she killed the guy? Will you feel bad then?"

Mindy appeared to consider his point, but never answered. There was a time early in his career when he struggled with the balance between his duty and his polite upbringing. Keeping that in mind made it easier to be patient with her. He unbuckled his seatbelt and turned towards her.

"I get that you don't want to be a dick to a woman who is probably going to through the worst thing that'll ever happen to her," he sympathized, though his tone remained firm and factual. He hadn't quite nailed the sympathetic tone just yet, he realized. "But this is just a part of the work. And this will be far from the toughest thing you'll ever have to do."

"I know," she said, her voice still soft.

"Alright, so let's go do our job. We're not the bad guys, remember?"

At that, Mindy seems to get some of her resolve back. She nodded confidently. "You're right. We're not."

"Okay, so suck it up and let's get in there."

"You don't need to tell me to 'suck it up,' rude. I got the gist of your pep talk."

"I'm just making sure," Danny said with a smirk. They both exited the car and trekked to the house. Any uncertainty that Mindy may have expressed seemed to have faded away entirely. With her shoulders back and her determined strut, he wouldn't have believed that she was having any trouble carrying out their task. The transformation was so quick that it left Danny a little skeptical.

"So you're good?" he asked.

"I'm great, I promise."

Mindy was the one to knock once they reached the door. When it opened, Tamra Daniels stood in the frame looking positively statuesque. Standing before her proved to Danny just how much cameras could mute beauty. As gorgeous as he thought she was during her many local television appearances, seeing her in the flesh – dark flesh covered by a snugly fit black dress, professionally done make-up and glittering jewels – left him dumbstruck. _Only a moron would cheat on a woman like this_, his thought as Mindy took the lead.

"Good afternoon, Mrs. Daniels. I'm Detective Lahiri and this is my partner, Detective Castellano."

"Come on in," she responded as if she'd been depleted of all of her hospitality. "I thought y'all might be coming. We can talk by the pool. This house is crawling with people. Between you and me, I don't even like half of them."

The detectives looked at each other simultaneously with twin puzzled expressions as they were led to the rear of the house. For someone who just lost their husband in a brutal murder, Tamra seemed unusually calm. Danny could almost hear the captain's voice reminding him that people grieve differently. She could still be in shock. It was hard to ignore, however, just how devastated Heather the Mistress looked in comparison to the woman who had actually been married to him for five years.

And she had been expecting them? How was that even possible?

"I really like your dress," Mindy complimented lightly as they navigated their way through numberous guests and flower arrangements.

"Thanks!" the woman replied, visibly flattered. "Nieman Marcus!"

"I'm in love with their sales rack!"

"Girl, who isn't?"

It was like watching two women settle in to chat over coffee. Danny felt the same rising urge to get down to business like he had at Heather's apartment. The only thing that stopped him was Mindy's apparent determination to take control of this particular interview. He had no desire to be reprimanded later for undermining her or stepping on her toes. Silently, he allowed Tamra to guide them through the sliding glass door and to the covered patio furniture next to the poolside bar. Mindy and Danny took their seats while the young widow went behind the bar and fixed herself a drink.

"First of all, we wanted to express our deepest condolences for your loss."

"Thank you," Tamra replied, though her words sounded hallow and automatic. Danny tried to imagine how many times she'd had to say those words in the few hours since Josh's death. The clink of the tumblers segued into the sound of a glass bottle being extracted from an occupied cabinet. As soon as she removed the top the scent of scotch wafted in the air. It was a smell that Danny would typically appreciate, but this time managed to turn his stomach in the early afternoon.

"So," Tamra sighed, bringing the glass to her smirking lips. "I bet you guys think I did it, huh?"

Mindy's head reared back despite her efforts to maintain some semblance of a poker face.. Danny, on the other hand, could not have wished for a better start to a conversation. There would be no needless roundabout chatter with Tamra Daniels and he was thoroughly grateful. The desire to openly celebrate this, however, was overshadowed by the curiosity to see just how Mindy would navigate this conversation.

"What would lead you to believe that you'd be a suspect?" Mindy posed.

Tamra shook her head and sipped her scotch. "I've been answering the same damn questions over and over again for the past nine hours. 'Mrs. Daniels, were there any crazy-looking people at the gala last night?' I don't know, everybody looks a little crazy to me. 'Mrs. Daniels, did your husband have any enemies?' Of course he had enemies! He was a politician! Go check Christina Porter's pockets. Maybe she's got a knife somewhere hidden under one of those ugly ass skirt suits she's always wearing. Point is, I've told the police everything I know and I'm sure you two already know that. So my guess is that what I've had to say wasn't good enough. You're digging."

The silence between the three of them spoke more candidly than anyone on the patio ever could. Nobody made the effort to deny Tamra's accusations. The stranger thing was that she didn't look the least bit indignant or defensive, stating the perception of her possible guilt as plainly as someone would state the weather.

"I'm sure you understand that when it comes to matters like these we have to be thorough," Danny explained.

"Oh, I get it," Tamara assured him as she walked around the bar and made her way to the open seat next to the two. "I'm not mad. You're doing your job. I have more than enough proof that I was nowhere near the city when it happened. Witnesses, receipts, everything. You're not gonna get really far with me. Now, if I were you I'd be questioning that dumbass waitress he was always messing around with. He was found near her apartment, right? Or am I mixing her up with Meredith? He got real desperate at one point and hooked up with a girl with an eye patch…"

"Okay, pardon me for a second," Mindy interrupted, pressing at her right temple as she processed what Tamra was saying. "Are you saying that you knew about your husband's infidelity? And there were other women?"

Tamra looked at the pair as if their lack of understanding was unfathomable. "Of course I knew! And the only one that really stuck around was the redhead. She had it bad for him and I'm pretty sure he was developing serious feelings for her, too. It wasn't that hard to figure out between the late night calls, awful excuses, and the numbers and shit I found in his pants pockets whenever I did laundry. Men are idiots. No offense, detective," she said to Danny.

"None taken, I guess," he replied, still in disbelief over Tamra's astuteness. "So…your husband was sleeping around and that didn't make you upset?"

Tamra shrugged as she took another sip of her scotch. "I mean, I was upset years ago when it first started. I was _really_ upset. But the truth of the matter is…we'd known each other since college and were in love once, and then we fell out of love. Once we came to terms with that our relationship became more about business than pleasure."

"Business?"

She nodded. "He decided to run for office and I sat down with his campaign manager, Jason. We all agreed that him showing the world that he was in a healthy, loving marriage was the best thing for his image. Divorcees and bachelors don't really get the votes quite like married guys."

Mindy, looking entirely intrigued, shifted in her seat then folded her arms over the top the table. "I just don't get it. What were you getting out of all this?"

"Trust me, I wouldn't just allow myself to get played. I had things that I wanted to accomplish too – youth mentorship programs and rehabilitation efforts for the homeless - and his platform was the way to bring awareness and support. He agreed to help me out, I promised to make him look good, and that was that. We kept up appearances for the public and had a privately open relationship."

In the midst of all this new information, Danny was at a loss on how to proceed. With all of his proposed motives now disproved, any follow-up questions now had the sole purpose of satisfying common curiosity. "So why not tell the women he was seeing that you were fine with it, at least? Why carry on the notion that he was some philandering jerk?"

"Because people forgive cheaters, Detective Castellano!" Tamra exclaimed. "And people also have big mouths. If word somehow got out that he was a cheater, then Josh would've had the chance to charm his way out of that. All it takes is one well-written apology and a statement from his forgiving wife and it would be old news. But if someone blabbed about the future Mayor of the city having some sort of open relationship, he'd be labeled a freak. Period. Politicians are supposed to be exposed as kinky fools after they get into office, not before. Ain't that something? People would feel more comfortable with a man having an affair and desecrating his vows than they would about two consenting adults defining the boundaries of their own relationship. I tell you what, people are funny as hell."

Danny watched her drain the last swallows of her drink and decided that he had heard enough. He looked to Mindy. "Detective Lahiri, do you have any more questions?"

Mindy, looking absolutely exhausted, replied, "Not really. Maybe you could tell us the name of someone you were with last night who can attest that you weren't in the area at the time. Just as a formality."

Tamra nodded her understanding. "I was with Tracey Whitfield."

"The political analyst?" Danny asked, recognizing the name from his weekly appearances on the local news. Shauna and Gwen would often talk about how handsome he was. The conversations usually ended with Shauna describing in great detail what she would do to him if she ever had the fortune of meeting him. He had to admit that he was a charismatic guy.

"That's the one," Tamra confirmed. "And no, it's not like _that_. We've been good friends for years."

Mindy shrugged as she took down the name on a small pad of paper. "Hey, what he is or isn't to you is not important. Thank you for your time, Mrs. Daniels. I think we have all that we need -"

"That wasn't my husband."

They were silent as Tamra's face showcased a sadness that they had not yet seen since they arrived. Suddenly the straight-shooting woman had trouble looking either of them in the eyes, apparently embarrassed by her own vulnerability.

"I just mean that the man that died was not at all the man I married. I honestly have no clue who that man is. Jason and his driver knew him better than I did. Josh and I didn't even sleep in the same room and we only really talked before public appearances, so…it's just hard for me to mourn a stranger when I already mourned the loss of my husband years ago."

* * *

After documenting the findings from a very productive day, Danny used the last hour to go over the case file that he now had memorized. It didn't quite feel like starting entirely from scratch, but it still felt somewhat new after a day of dead ends. They would talk with the campaign manager, but he pessimistically expected more of the same information they already had. When he mentioned this to Captain Shulman during his brief follow-up, the only wisdom he offered was a tired-sounding "step out of that box and breathe a little, Castellano." At this point, what other choice did he have?

Now he was staring at the pictures of the crime scene for the umpteenth time, trying to spot something that may have escaped the eyes of both him and his enthusiastic partner.

"So today was nuts, huh?"

Once again she had materialized without warning. He tried to look less affronted this time around. "Uh, yeah. Today was a good start, I think."

Mindy smiled and nodded. "Well, I just wanted to say thank you for showing me the ropes and eventually warming up to the idea of us working together. I know you're kind of a lone wolf at heart, but I think we could make a really decent team."

Once she said that, he realized that he thought so as well. Working alone still had its perks, but if he had to be proverbially shackled to a colleague then he was grateful that it was someone with as much moxie and heart as her.

"Well, uh…" he said, grasping for something to say. "I'm glad you, uh, think that."

Mindy nodded awkwardly. "I do."

"That's good."

They didn't say anything for a few seconds, which made Danny desperate to say anything to dissipate the strange tension that fell upon them.

"So, something's been bugging me ever since we left Heather's place."

"Yeah?" Mindy stepped closer to Danny's desk and leaned against the edge. "What?"

"It's weird, but something about her not knowing about the cameras not working in the garage stuck with me a little."

"Did it really? I didn't really see anything special about that."

"You didn't?"

"No," Mindy replied with a shrug of one of her shoulders. "I mean, you see a camera and you assume it works. Everyone knows that a parking garage is one of the most dangerous places. Nobody would think that a place that wants to sell residents on the safety of their facilities would be bold enough to not maintain their security equipment."

Danny understood her point. He knew every leaky faucet and cracked tile at his complex, but he was detective who could naturally spot these things. Plus, he already felt like he might have been grasping at straws. "So you don't think there could be something worth looking at with all this?"

She waved her head side to side as she considered the information. "You know, I'd like to think that this is just typical slumlord behavior where he was too cheap to update his crap. After a weird day like today, though, I'm willing to think anything's possible. If it's bugging you, then what's the harm in keeping it in mind, you know?"

Mindy stood straight and patted Danny on the shoulder. "Well, I better get going. I'm going to journal the fuck out of today. See you in the morning, partner!"

Danny chuckled as she waved goodbye. "Go journal, you weirdo. See you tomorrow."

* * *

**A/N: I truly, truly hope everyone is enjoying this so far! This is a completely different type of story for me, so all support is appreciated! Please leave a review/comment if you can and let me know what you think!**

**Hollaatchyagirl,**

**Phunky**


	5. Chapter 5

"I don't know what to tell you guys. I kept his days pretty busy. There wasn't much room in his schedule to get into trouble."

Danny and Mindy stood nearby and listened while Jason Richmond packed a stack of labeled files into a dusty cardboard box. By the time they had reached the Daniels campaign headquarters most of the décor and election paraphernalia had been reduced to memories, shoved into bags and cases except a pitiful banner that hung crookedly over the water cooler. Half of the chairs and desks were stacked in the back while the other half remained untouched. The most amusing part of the scene was the man they came to see, who was packing while wearing a crisp dark business suit. He had the look of someone who was far too busy to trifle around with petty issues, like assisting the authorities in the capture of a vicious criminal.

"So were you present for every campaign opportunity?" Mindy asked with her arms crossed over her chest. "Every meeting? Every photo op?"

"I was there for most of it, but not everything," Jason replied, keeping himself busy. "But nothing ever made it onto his calendar without my say-so."

"So he wasn't stepping out of his schedule behind your back?" Danny pressed. "No secret meet-ups or special lunches?"

Jason stopped his task to roll his eyes haughtily, seeming to catch on to Danny's implication quickly. "If you're talking about the women, we did a good job of compartmentalizing that portion of his life and keeping it out of our way. None of that interfered with his race."

"As far as you know," Mindy goaded.

"Fine," Jason fired back flippantly. "But what or who he did at night was really none of my concern. He was my client, not my friend. My job was to make sure he looked like a winner and that's what I did."

Danny was approaching his limit. He was prepared to respond to his attitude when Mindy spoke up with a tone of irritation that Danny had not witness in the three days of knowing her.

"Look, nobody here is questioning how effective of a campaign manager you were," she argued. "We're here because you spent more time with him in the last few months than anybody else. If you don't want to help us find the psycho _who killed a guy_, then fine. I just hope you understand that that makes you a total dick."

"Hey!" Jason yelped. "I'm _not_ a dick!"

"Come on, man, you're kind of a dick," Danny provoked, still amused by Mindy's outburst. "Right now you are, anyways. Sorry to take up so much of your precious time, guy, but we're trying to solve a case here."

Jason opened his mouth as if he were about to say something, but quickly thought better of it as his hands found his hips and his attention fell to the floor. He took a calming breath then lifted his head. He had the decency to look apologetic.

"I don't mean to be rude," he explained in a much calmer voice. "This whole thing has just been a terrible mess. Between press and my very sudden need to find a new job, this has been a very stressful turn of events for me."

Mindy nodded slowly, her eyebrows furrowed. "Well, I'm sorry that Mr. Daniels' death has been such a tragic, life-ruining thing…for you."

"Thank you," Jason replied sincerely, either missing the sarcasm or choosing to ignore it. "And I'll bounce back. He was just so easy, you know? Out of all the campaigns I've headed, his was the easiest. He was likable, handsome, wonderfully predictable - like 'I don't start my day without a bowl of shredded wheat and a glass of grapefruit juice' predictable- had few skeletons outside of the whole wayward penis thing. Josh was just easy to manage. This election was a slam dunk from the beginning."

"So how often was he out of your sight?" Danny questioned as he leaned against a bare desk.

"He really wasn't." Jason scratched the back of his head and then amended, "Well, except for lunch, but I didn't really take lunches unless they were work-related. Monday through Thursday he'd take a thirty, maybe forty-five minute lunch and he usually just went to Sweet Pickles Deli on Welch Avenue. Fridays were usually spent canvassing or making local appearances."

Mindy stood a little straighter. "Did he drive himself to lunch?"

"Nah, I always encouraged him to use the car service we hired. He was a shit driver."

"Where do we find him?"

"Morgan?" Jason verified. "He's actually packing up the storage room. You wanna...?"

Danny nodded and Jason loudly called for Morgan before returning his attention to his guests. "Did you have anymore questions for me, detectives?"

"No, but we'll give you a call if we do," Mindy replied.

"Great. Oh, and uh..." Jason searched his jacket pocket and extracted a small wallet. He pulled a business card out of the bill fold and held it out to Mindy. "If any of your superiors decide to run for office, I find myself, uh, quite suddenly available. Heh."

When neither Danny nor Mindy laughed at his ill-timed joke, Jason mumbled an apology under his breath and walked away with his business card still in his hand. The detectives looked to each other and wordlessly agreed on their dislike of the tactless gentleman with a simple eye roll. Moments later, a tall man with shaggy hair entered the room from a narrow hallway in the back left corner. With a stack of boxes tucked under his chin, he staggered over to the nearest empty desk and heaved them onto the surface. He exhaled loudly while wiping the dust from the front of his navy blue track suit.

"Are you Morgan?" Mindy asked hopefully.

The man appeared to have only just noticed their presence at the sound of her voice. His expression quickly transitioned from surprise to great caution. "I might be. Who's asking?"

"Morgan, that's Detective Lahiri and her partner, Detective Castellano," Jason introduced half-heartedly while taping a box shut. "They're looking for Mr. Daniels' killer."

Morgan visibly relaxed with a nod. "Oh! Yeah, that was sad."

"You drove Mr. Daniels around a great deal, correct?" Danny questioned.

"Well, I was a lot more than a chauffer, I think," Morgan answered with a sigh as he sat at the edge of the desk. "I was also his bodyguard at times, nutritionist...a life coach in certain areas..."

Danny had a hard time believing that this man was capable of effectively training anyone. With a rather soft-looking body and poor posture, the track suit was his most athletic looking asset.

"So you two were...close?" Mindy asked dubiously.

"I mean...I offered a lot of advice and I assumed he was listening. He was hard to read, if you ask me."

"It's our understanding that you would often drive him around for lunch."

"Oh yeah. He liked to go to that awful excuse for a deli, Sweet Pickles."

Danny agreed. "Yeah, that place is terrible. Never had a more questionable roast beef sandwich in my life."

"Yes! Tragic roast beef!" Morgan exclaimed with a point. "I'll tell you one thing, detective, they're the real criminals."

The men laughed while Mindy looked on incredulously. "I'm sorry, can we please get back to -"

"Right, right." Danny gave a quick shake of his head and returned to the task. "So were you always with him? Did you ever eat together?"

"No, he was funny about eating lunch with people," Morgan explained, sounding a little disappointed. "He liked to lunch alone. I'd park nearby and he'd call when he was wrapping up. Usually took about thirty minutes."

"And this was a daily occurrence?"

"Yeah...wait, no. Yes?" Morgan's features scrunched as he struggled to remember, then he snapped his fingers with the arrival of sudden clarity. "No, it wasn't always like that. Sometimes he'd have me drop him off at Peakman Park so that he could meet his wife for lunch. He'd take a cab back here on those days, I think."

Danny was careful to keep his face as neutral as possible, but he was eager to get back to the car and discuss this development with Mindy. Tamra already made her and her husband's distance so clear that even the occasional lunch seemed odd to him...not impossible, but very odd. Try as he might to abstain from jumping to a conclusion right away, this seemed like something worth looking into.

"Did you see his wife whenever you dropped Mr. Daniels off at the park? And can you remember exactly when he would have lunch with her?"

Morgan shook his head. "No. No, I just dropped him off and let him do his thing. I couldn't tell you every time he met her, but I remember the last time was last Wednesday."

Out of questions, Danny turned to Mindy and waited for her follow-up. Instead, she smiled and noted his information in a small pad. With that, the pair made their exit.

When they left the office Danny found himself staring at Mindy, reevaluating her. Three days made quite the difference. Her outfits were no longer 'loud' but 'interesting.' Her voice no longer sounded shrill to him (or perhaps it still was and he had just developed a strange immunity to it). And the moniker of "Chipper Indian Girl" didn't feel sufficient at all anymore. Mindy Lahiri was cheerful, absolutely, but also attentive, sharp and far tougher than he would have guessed upon first meeting.

"Oh God, is there something on my face?" Mindy asked in mild panic, swiping the corners of her mouth furiously with the back of her hand.

"No, I'm just impressed," Danny said proudly. "You got a little mouthy with that Jason idiot, partner."

She let out an exaggerated "ha!" as she neared the passenger door of the car. "That was nothing! You should see how I deal with my cable company. I don't mean to brag, but I've complained enough to basically get free Wi-Fi for life."

"Well whatever the cause, it's cool to see that you've got some bite to you."

Once settled inside Mindy immediately grabbed for the iPad from the backseat. "You know, that's the first time you've ever acknowledged me as your partner," she mused without looking away from the device. The satisfied smile grew slowly as she tapped away at the screen.

The observation caused Danny to minutely cock his head to the side as he looked at her with knitted eyebrows. She was probably right - the verbal acknowledgement of their partnership felt a little new on his lips. Mindy stated the trivia, however, with the same reverence as someone who had just received an unexpected gift. He couldn't imagine why she would view this as such a noteworthy moment.

When he didn't say anything, Mindy looked up to find his puzzled expression. "Oh, don't look at me like that," she demanded playfully. "It's a big deal."

"It's not!"

"It is, considering your initial resistance. If I didn't know any better, I'd think that Danny Castellano was actually warming up to me...but that can't be it, right?"

The corners of her mouth remained upward in a daringly gleeful smile. Her smugness was unbearable, but her impish grin was annoyingly contagious. Without meaning to, he smiled back.

"No, there's no way that could be true," he teased.

"Yeah, I didn't think so." She returned to her attention to the iPad display and tapped at the keyboard image. Danny started the car.

"So," he huffed. "Jason having lunch with his wife..."

"Bullshit," she Mindy assessed instantly. "I'm sending myself some quick notes. I don't think Tamra was lying when she said that she and Josh didn't relate a whole lot. Unless the lunches were set up as photo opportunities -"

"Which she or Jason probably would have mentioned," Danny supplied.

"And they didn't, so that was something Josh cooked up all on his own. Do you think he was meeting Heather?"

Danny took a moment to consider the possibility, then shook his head. "I don't think his other women were a secret, not to the guy that drove him around so much. He wouldn't need to lie about it. Better yet, he could have had him just drop him off at the lunch spot and not said anything. I don't know, it just seems like a really purposeful lie."

"Which is why I think we need to peek at his bank records."

Danny raised his eyebrows and briefly turned his attention from the road to look over at the passenger side. Mindy was staring back with a look of determination.

"What'll you think we'll find?" Danny asked cautiously, hoping that she wouldn't see the question as some sort of challenge of her judgment.

"I don't know," Mindy answered candidly. "We could find absolutely nothing but a bunch of random transactions. Or, we can find out just where he was spending his money if it wasn't at his usual deli. It's a stretch, I know, but -"

"No," Danny shook his head. "No, we should roll with it. It's a shot, right? And if there's nothing there, we'll just figure something else out."

Though his eyes were on the road, he could still see her victorious smile from his peripheral vision. "Okay," she said brightly. "I'll put in a seizure request on Monday. Thanks for the support, Danny."

He pulled into the station's parking garage and found a spot on the second floor. It was strange: he was ready for his shift to end, but not nearly as eager to get away from Mindy. Before he could really analyze it, he cleared his throat.

"So a lot of us like to grab a quick drink from The Tipsy Jester after work on Fridays," he explained while freeing himself from the confines of his seat belt. "I never stay that late, but it's nice to end the week with a beer or two. You should come."

She didn't have to answer. Her eyes lit up brightly enough to let him know where she stood on his invitation.

"Danny, are you inviting me to my first work hangout?!"

"I don't know, _would_ this be your first work hangout?"

"Yeah! Well, my first hangout since transferring, anyways. This is so cool! Of course I'll come!"

He felt engulfed in her enthusiasm and that would normally irritate him. Instead, he was just happy to see her so enthused by a gesture so small. Danny accepted that Mindy was just a woman that showed a lot of excitement for little things. As a matter of fact, he was beginning to find it refreshing.

"Okay, calm down, calm down," he said with a chuckle. "I've got to finish up the report for the Hamilton case, so it'll be about another hour."

"That's fine," she replied. "I've still got to work on the request and document Jason and Morgan's accounts. We can head out together!"

Together. It was a word that would have made a loner like him twitch just the week prior. Now, however, the word – cloaked in enough excitement for the both of them – simply made him grin.

"Sounds like a plan."


	6. Chapter 6

He only meant to stay long enough to enjoy one beer.

More than one beer typically equated to taking a cab home and leaving his car behind. It was a certain vulnerability that he just couldn't subject himself to, especially for the sake of drinking amongst his coworkers. Riding in the back of a stranger's car seemed like undeserved retribution for staying behind to listen to Peter's implausible hook-up tales, or to one of Shauna and Gwen's loud debates over which pistol had better aim. One beer was good. One beer was just social enough.

Tonight was different. Danny was close to finishing his second beer and was seriously considering a third as he sat next to Mindy at the bar, sequestered from the rest of the group. The cautionary urge to stop did cause him to deny the service of the hospitable barkeep after his first drink. Then Mindy ordered her second glass of red wine.

"I'm not ready to go home just yet," she confessed after dropping a couple of bills onto the surface. "And if you leave now, you'll essentially be leaving me alone. Is that what partners do, leave each other hanging? Wow, I didn't know that's how things worked here in the city."

He knew it wasn't a serious challenge, but her determination to keep his company amused him enough to order his second drink. Between sips they talked about the case (until Mindy banned all work-related talk) and favorite pizza places (until the mention of Paulito's Pizzeria, a place Danny was not on good terms with at the present). The conversation was brought to a literally screeching halt when they arrived to the topic of movies.

"You've never seen Titanic?" Mindy cried with a look of utter disgust. "Danny, you're obviously lying!"

"How is that so hard to believe?" Danny defended with his hands at his sides, though he couldn't resist smiling at her indignant expression. "Why would I ever need to see Titanic? It's not like it's Forrest Gump."

"It's not Forrest Gump because it's already _Titanic_," Mindy insisted. "Danny, my great aunt Ramita, who has only ever lived in India, has seen only two American-made movies in her lifetime: Goodburger and Titanic."

"Wait, _Goodburger_?"

"It was a major mix-up, but she liked it!" The two laughed as they took another sip of their drinks. Mindy set hers on the coaster before her. "I would threaten to make you watch it this weekend, but God, over three hours long…that's a crazy commitment. I don't have the fortitude or the tears for it at the moment. But one day, mister. One day I'm sitting you down and you're gonna experience it in all its glory."

"Yeah, I don't know about that," he mumbled before draining the last of the beer. He set the mug down and leaned against the edge of the bar.

"Any weekend plans?" Mindy asked as she turned in her stool to face him. She propped her elbow on the bar top and rested her head in the palm of her hand, her fingers threaded through her loose hair.

He couldn't remember the last time someone was genuinely interested in what he was planning to do outside of work. Even worse, he couldn't recall the last time he had any enviable weekend plans to report. Aside from his time spent in the gym and the occasional date, the weekends were reserved for cleaning his apartment, cooking, and watching backlogged DVR recordings of National Geographic documentaries. It was a categorically sad list of events for most, but a source of joy for him. Since most didn't understand, questions regarding his weekend plans were usually answered with nothing more than a shrug and a "no plans as of yet." He maintained the same strategy with Mindy and wasn't at all shocked when that wasn't sufficient enough for her.

"You have to have some idea," Mindy insisted. Her eyelids were reduced to narrow, judgmental slits. "No dates? No visiting family in Staten? How about watching the big fight with your friends?"

"Eh…I don't really hang out with other people all that much."

"Not even, like, your really good friends?"

Danny grimaced. "I don't really do the whole 'friends' thing." His implementation of air quotes made it look as if Danny found the idea of friendship to be a made up concept.

"What does that mean, 'I don't do the friends thing?' What does that _even_ mean?" The wine was beginning to adjust the volume of her voice in a way that made her sound much more outraged than she probably was. "Friends are essential, Danny. It's…_friends_. It's not a luxury like yoga pants or filtered water –"

"Hold on, you don't feel like filtered water is essential?"

"I lived my whole life up until my junior year of college with good ol' fashioned faucet tap, so it's fine."

Danny snorted as she continued. "You can't just wander through life friendless. Everyone needs at least one friend to have their back. Who do you complain to? Who to you share good news with?"

"Ma."

"I'm sorry, who?"

"My mother," Danny clarified. "Or my brother, Richie."

"Okaaay," Mindy stalled. "But your family and your friends aren't really the same. You can't be entirely open about everything with your family. Everyone has to have at least one friend that they don't hold back from."

Danny looked at his mug, watching the residual foam sink to the bottom. A third beer was beginning to look like less of a bad idea. "You know, me and Lang used to be friends."

"Lang?" Mindy asked a little too loudly. Danny quickly shushed, not wanted to be overheard by their colleagues. Mindy leaned a little forward and spoke in a lower voice. "Sorry. Did you say Lang? The unnaturally hot older guy who's always around that walking frat house, Peter?"

"Okay, unnaturally hot is a bit much," he cringed. "Anyway, he and I grew up on the island together. His mother loved me and my mother adored him. Don't tell anyone, but he was ultimately the one who convinced me to go to the Academy in the first place. "

Mindy shook her head in disbelief. "So what the hell happened? Now you guys can barely be in the same room with each other."

He sighed. Danny had never really talked about this with anyone except his brother. It was already beginning to feel somewhat taxing. "I don't know. We started out at different precincts and kind of lost touch. By the time I had transferred to Homicide, he had already been there for about a year. I thought we'd eventually go back to being buddies, but he had already turned into this arrogant big shot, you know? As soon as I started solving cases and proving how good I was, all I was to him was competition. Now it's like we never knew each other at all."

Mindy donned an expression of pity, the very expression that made him hesitant to tell the story in the first place. She placed a hand on his shoulder, which he assumed was her attempt to be comforting. "Aww, Danny. Do you miss him?"

"No!" he denied as he shrugged off her offending touch. "I don't miss him! That's nuts. No, I'm just saying that friends…friends usually end up being a major hassle with very little payoff in the end. I don't see anything wrong with –"

"Wandering the barren earth by yourself?"

"Okay, how optimistic are you that you think I'll live to see a barren earth?"

After a beat of silence – and the realization that their conversation had taken a ridiculous turn – they both chuckled.

"I don't care what you say. Everyone needs a friend," Mindy stated resolutely. "The best part about them is the tendency to blindly take your side on things. You could be entirely in the wrong, but a good friend just has your back! No questions asked. Like with you and Lang. As your friend, I can't like Lang."

"It's that simple?" Danny asked through a very stubborn smile. He found the idea of her insisting to be his friend very, very flattering. "You're now refusing to be friends with the 'unnaturally hot older guy?'"

"Eww, 'hot older guy'? More like E.T.'s even uglier cousin," she said without hesitation, her smile now much broader. "But seriously. Fuck Lang."

"Mindy, you're ridiculous. That's childish and unnecessary…but thank you."

"Anytime, buddy."

Danny turned to look at his mug once again. As he watched the foam dissipate into a tiny pool of liquid at the bottom, he tapped the side with the tip of his finger. Each tap sounded with a hollow chime. He should really go. He was one beer past his usual limit and had already divulged way more than he had intended.

"Let's have one more drink."

When he looked up, her soft smile and gently pleading eyes teamed up to kill the rejection poised at the tip of his tongue.

"Okay. One more." Danny raised a finger to grab the bartender's attention and wagged it in a single circle to indicate a request for one more round of drinks. He didn't appreciate his smug smile one bit, but quickly let it go when he felt Mindy's fleeting touch on his forearm. It may have been the beer, but there was a noticeable tingle where the pads of her fingers had landed.

"Okay, Danny. I know I said no more shop talk, but I heard you once solved a homicide with nothing to go on but a candy wrapper and an empty First Wives Club DVD case. Confirm or deny."

Mindy and Danny were two of the last squad members to leave the bar at the end of the night. He was already missing his car as he climbed into the backseat of their shared cab, but having Mindy chatter next to him was a welcomed distraction.

"So I'm having a trivia night at my apartment on Tuesday night," Mindy announced suddenly. "It's something I do once a month with my friends. Even my old partner Maggie will be there."

"Oh yeah?" Danny's head lulled to the side to face her. "That sounds like a fun thing for you."

"For _us_," Mindy corrected with a slick smile. "You're coming, obviously."

Danny's eyebrows raised and he let out a throaty laugh. "No, that's not obvious because I don't do trivia. I'm sure Prentice and Grandy will enjoy themselves, though. They love that stuff."

"I'm not inviting them."

"This isn't a department thing?"

"No, this is a friends thing. And you, my friend, are coming. I'll have beer and snacks and my winning personality."

"I'll…I'll think about it."

"It's so cute how you think you have a choice in the matter."

Danny opened his mouth to argue as the cab slowed down to halt in front of a familiar building that was not at all his complex. "Hey, you live here?"

"I do!" Mindy answered excitedly as she dug into her purse for cash. Danny stopped her and handed the driver a twenty dollar bill.

"I don't live far. I'm gonna walk the rest of the way. Thanks."

The driver shrugged and took the money with a tip of his cap. They ambled out of the back seat and Danny closed the door behind him. The driver wasted no time pulling away. Mindy turned to Danny with a confused smile. "You didn't have to walk me to the door."

"I'm being polite!" Danny replied defensively. "And I only live maybe four or five blocks from here. It's not a big deal."

"Fine! Geez!" Mindy held up her hands in mock surrender. "Heaven forbid I recognize you for a good deed!"

Danny let out an embarrassing laugh as he looked down at his shoes. "Sorry."

"It's okay."

He lifted his eyes to her face once again. The light evening wind blew a few wisps of her loose hair in her face. He waited for her to tuck it behind her ear. When she didn't, choosing instead to just smile at him, it both warmed and frustrated him. His fingers twitched as he tamped unusual urge to push it away from her wine-softened eyes. _Friends don't do that_, he reasoned silently.

"Well, thank you for inviting me out and indulging my desires to drink too much wine and seeing me home."

Danny half-smiled. "You're welcome on all accounts. Thanks for saying 'fuck Lang.' It's nice hearing it from someone other than myself every once in a while. "

Mindy nodded, then placed both of her hands on his upper arm. "You and I are going to be friends, Castellano. Deal with it." She leaned in and gave him a quick peck on his cheek. "Good night, grumpy."

"Good night, weirdo."

Danny hung back and watched her trudge up the steps and key into her building with only a hint of a wobble. She gave him a quick parting wave and disappeared behind the doors. When he realized that something in him wanted her to come back outside and hang out with him for just a little longer, he rolled his eyes and groaned. "Shit."

Turning on his heels, he headed towards the direction of his building and began his very slow, dazed trek. This, as far as he was concerned, was the worst possible outcome. It was easier to deal with the prospect of hating her. He had no idea how to begin to build immunity against her dazzling smile, or alleviate the lead-like feeling in the pit of his stomach whenever she took a moment to encourage him. This was sudden and unwelcome…and as much as he wanted to blame this new development on the three beers he'd consumed, it rang totally false even in his own head.

"You're not supposed to like her, idiot," he chastised himself while slowly approaching the street lamp outside of his building. "Jesus, and after she made a big deal about becoming friends? Nice one, Castellano."

Danny's berating was interrupted by the sharp vibration of his phone in his back pocket. It only ever rang late at night for work emergencies. He quickly pulled it out, praying that it was nothing that required him to be sober and at the station. He relaxed when the display flashed "Best Partner Ever."

"How the hell did she get a hold of my phone?" he asked himself with a small smile. He opened the message at once.

**I need to know which beer is your favorite.**

**If you don't tell me, I'm just going to buy the **

**most stereotypically American beer I can find**

**and you'll have to suffer through the whole **

**pack on Tuesday night. Because you ARE **

**coming. G'night! **

There was no stopping it. A barking laugh escaped from his lips and into the night air. Smiling, he shoved the phone back into his pocket and took the final steps needed to reach his building entrance. He would make the effort to fight against this wildly unrealistic, extremely inconvenient crush on his partner. For tonight and tonight only, he would allow himself to think of the excited squeak in her voice and how her hair glistened in the moonlight.


	7. Chapter 7

Danny managed to glean a few things about Josh Daniels through the lengthy bank and credit card statements. For starters, the man spent an exorbitant amount on footwear. There were at least two transactions each week that were linked to different men's shoe stores within the city, each number larger than the last. The second trend he noticed: the abundance of hotel charges, all stemming from a small variety of hotels in different neighboring cities. Danny assumed that he would meet other women there to remain out of the prying eyes of his constituents. The image of Josh engaging in whatever escapades he involved himself in while his wife remained at home wasn't new. In his line of work he'd encountered more than enough scorned spouses. Still, the idea made him sick.

The third and most important standout detail was an exact transaction of $46.28 that occurred exactly seven times, one of them charged on the Wednesday that Morgan identified. It was one of only three charges listed for that particular day. The source was The Grape Leaf, a Greek restaurant that was well known throughout the precinct as "Shady Central." The establishment had become popular amongst the city's more troublesome demographic due to its lack of sufficient surveillance. There was only a single camera in the entire dining portion of the restaurant and it pointed directly over the register. Many of the shadier patrons opted to enter via the back door to avoid it. While there were plenty who were there simply to dine, the majority of their customers were believed to meet there to conduct business. The charges on Josh's statements reflected a bill for at least two people.

"So who were you eating with, Josh?" Danny mumbled as he highlighted the transactions under special scrutiny. For a brief, daunting second he considered the possibility that Josh had actually spent that time with Tamra. What if this turned out to be nothing but a desperate grasp at something that meant very little, if anything? Where exactly would they go from here? He'd seen cases with far more substantial evidence grow cold.

While he didn't deny the temptation to seek Mindy's perspective and optimism, he did ignore it. He purposely sat far away from her during the morning briefing and didn't respond to the (admittedly very funny) joke e-mail she had forwarded to him. While he never intended to avoid her, the distance helped to cast aside the romantic thoughts that managed to plague his entire weekend. Monday progressed much more easily when he chose to focus on other cases on his own. It was now Tuesday, however, and the necessity to actually interact with her was looming. For a moment, he genuinely wished he could be like Peter and have reckless flings with his co-workers (he still laughed whenever he remember Shauna angrily dumping cereal on Peter's head just before lunch) instead of being bogged down with all the possible consequences. If he wasn't so certain that pursuing Mindy would ultimately end horrendously, he might actually consider loosening up around her.

_Did I really just wish to be more like Peter? _he cringed. _No, surely things aren't __**that**__ bad. _

With a desperate shake of his head he picked up the phone and dialed Mindy's extension, blowing out an exasperated sigh.

"Hey," she answered plainly. The shuffle of paperwork in the receiver served as a workable distraction from the flutter in his chest at the sound of her voice. _God, this is ridiculous_.

"Hey, I took a look at those records. I think we should stop by The Grape Leaf."

"The Grape Leaf?" she repeated. "That hole-in-the-wall Greek place across from the hole-in-the-wall Thai place?"

"That's the one. Daniels went there a few times and the bills are kind of large for one person."

"So he did have a lunch date," she mused. "Just not Tamra."

"I don't think so, no. I have a few acquaintances there that might help us out. We can leave in fifteen minutes."

"Sounds good!" she confirmed with her typical zeal. "And afterwards do you think you can treat your favorite partner to lunch? There's a future bagel in it for you, and I might even throw in a mildly embarrassing Good Morning song!"

_Why does she have to be so damn charismatic? _Danny lamented inwardly as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'll meet you at the car in fifteen," he responded, sounding brusquer than he intended.

"Oh. Um, okay."

While he never minded taking on the title of "jerk" before, he began to feel the rare pang of guilt as he disconnected the call.

* * *

Three sent e-mails later, Danny walked through the parking lot as he finished putting on his jacket. He could already spot a pair of shiny turquoise flat shoes by the passenger door before the rest of her came into view. Once closer he noticed her leaning against the driver's side.

"You're not driving, if that's what you're thinking," he called out, his voice echoing off the concrete walls of the garage.

"I didn't plan on it...but now that you mention it, it's a little presumptuous of you to take the wheel every single time. Furthermore, you're not my boss! You can't command me to the passenger's seat!"

"What, do you want to drive?" he asked with raised eyebrows.

"Not right this moment, but maybe later!"

It was hard for Danny to ignore the adorably tiny flare of Mindy's nose whenever she got flustered. He cursed himself at his inability to control such wandering thoughts. As his head dropped he could clearly hear Mindy take a calming breath.

"Danny, are you okay?" she asked, concern replacing indignation. "You've been really weird since Friday night. I know you got my text on Sunday about the founding fathers documentary series on PBS."

"And I still don't understand why you thought I'd need to know that."

"Hey, I took a shot in the dark. Sue me!" She crossed her arms over her chest. "Then you don't say a word to me all day yesterday and today you're this strange breed of grumpy-sullen. Did I do something?"

"No," he quickly denied. "You didn't do anything."

"Are you scared that I'm gonna tell people what you told me about Charlie?" she asked in a low voice, as if she were fearful that the other vehicles might hear her.

Danny rolled his eyes. "No, that's crazy. I'm not…I'm just a little stressed out, okay?"

Mindy's eyebrows knitted together as she tried sympathize. "Like, you're stressed about the case?"

"Yeah," he lied. "Yeah, the case has got me a little bugged out, I guess."

"Okay, but you've solved tons of cases."

He shrugged. "Sure, but this one's different."

The relevance of that statement – though wrapped in farce – struck him rather abruptly. It was then that he recognized why his evolving feelings for Mindy were so daunting. She was different. This wasn't a fleeting attraction with a woman he spotted at a loud bar or someone he had grown to like over a period of time. This was Mindy. The majority of his days were spent with her. While they had only truly worked together for less than a week, she supported him like they'd been friends for ages. He reasoned that all of this was why, for the first time in a very long time, her incredible beauty was an afterthought to him. She was absolutely different. She was his partner.

"I just think I'm a little more invested in this than I meant to be in the beginning," he continued with a hint of a croak.

Mindy's head swayed while she considered what his admission. "Well, I think you'd have to be, man. That's our job."

Danny nodded. "Yeah, you're right about that."

"And you're not the only one whose credibility is on the line here," she continued. "I'm the newbie, remember? It'll be much worse for me if this gets screwed up. But I'm treating this like every other case and I think we're onto something. We're good detectives. We're even a pretty good team, don't you think?"

Her hand found his upper arm in a gentle squeeze before falling back down to her side. Her gaze was simultaneously penetrative and comforting. He wished he could explain to her that treating the case - her - like all the others was not going to work. He couldn't, though. Not yet.

But Danny could still feel his anxiety towards her begin to ebb. The newfound comprehension of his feelings, while still nerve-wracking, made him feel like he still had some control. The distance no longer felt necessary.

"You're right," he agreed. "I'm being stupid."

"Alright," Mindy nodded with the barest hint of a smile. She started to move out of the way and over to her usual side of the car. "So you'll suck it up long enough for us to do our job?"

"Hey, don't use my words against me," he commanded with a smirk. "I don't like that."

"I bet you don't. Oh, and I wasn't kidding about lunch today."

"We can discuss a _possible_ hot dog."

"Hey, I love hot dogs!"

* * *

After parking the Trailblazer along the side of the road, Danny led them down the path and maneuvered their way through a busy stream of people.

Mindy maintained her stride close behind him. "So you know somebody here?"

"The guy that buses tables and I go way back," Danny answered as they approached the entrance. "Hopefully he can give us something good."

He swung open the door and was immediately satisfied with the sight of a bushy-haired man wiping down the surface next to a foggy glass dessert display case. True to form, the man recognized Danny, rolled his eyes, and groaned with a level of exasperation that Danny just knew wasn't at all exaggerated.

"Mr. Kleinfeld!" he boisterously greeted. "It's always a pleasure running into you here."

"Tell me something," the man's tone was clipped as he tossed the rag onto the counter. "How is it that I see you more now than when I was actually committing crimes and stuff? I thought going straight meant no more 'run ins.'" His eyes darted towards Mindy. "And you've made a friend? Since when have you ever needed help harassing the innocent?"

Danny nudged his head in her direction. "Sam, relax. This is my partner, Detective Lahiri. We're investigating a murder that occurred last week and we think you can help us."

"Are you talkin' about that dead politician guy?" Sam inquired.

"Josh Daniels, yes. You know him?"

"I didn't _know_ him," he emphasized, "but I saw him here once. Maybe twice."

"Only twice?" Mindy piped up. She stepped forward until she was standing beside Danny. "We believe he was here at least seven times."

"He might have come in while I wasn't working, I dunno."

Danny leaned forward against the counter, crossing one leg in front of the other as he tried to get comfortable. "Sam, we've known each other for a while, right? I think we have a pretty good rapport."

Sam cocked his head back and narrowed his eyes. "Admittedly, it's much easier to deal with you when you're not shoving me into the back of a squad car. Not by much, mind you."

"I'd agree. And you've been bussing tables here for...what, four years?"

"I've since been promoted to server-slash-host, thank you," Sam corrected, indignant.

"That's wonderful. That really is. Either way, we both know that you know more than you're letting on. You're here almost every day. You mean to tell me you only saw him _possibly_ twice?"

Sam blew out a sigh and looked towards the ceiling before squeezing his eyes shut, as if he were mentally willing Danny to leave. "This is why I can't stand when you come by. You come in here, shittin' all over my day, insisting that I know about aaaallll the murders in town - "

"-not all. That's ridiculous," Danny deadpanned.

"-and you accuse me of lying-"

"-because you always lie."

" - and then you bring your very beautiful partner here to what, play Good Cop/Bad Cop? You beat it out of me while she offers me a soda?"

"Sam, when have I ever beaten you?" Danny asked with raised eyebrows, daring him to respond. "More importantly, _what's_ to beat out of you, exactly?"

"Nothing!" Sam exclaimed a little too loudly. He looked around to find that he had garnered the attention of the only two customers in the dining room. He leaned forward and continued in a lower voice. "Look, I don't know what you want from me. I didn't see the guy here much at all. As you can see we can barely fit more than seven people here at once, and even that's pushing it. I think I'd know if I saw a big shot politician here seven times."

Danny looked towards a wood partition in the far right corner. With a point he asked, "What about the private room? Maybe he was in there?"

Sam kept his attention staunchly forward, refusing to look in the direction that Danny was indicating. "What private room?"

"Don't do this right now," Danny snapped as he stood up straight. "I mean it! Don't jerk us around; we don't have the time."

"Okay fine, fine!" He nervously readjusted the stained blue apron tied around his waist. "I'm sorry for -"

"-lying?" Mindy interjected, which made Danny want to smile rather hugely for one reason or another.

"Playing dumb," Sam insisted. "I'm sorry for playing dumb, but in a way I kind of am when it comes to that room. Milo, the owner, insists that he's the only one allowed to serve those guests. His son fills in for him when he's not here. Me? I'm not allowed in there."

"What kind of guests usually use that room?" Mindy asked, beating Danny to the question.

Sam shrugged. "I don't know. Celebrities?"

"Celebrities?" Danny repeated skeptically. "What kind of celebrities?"

"You know, celebrities. Your Ben Stillers and your Kim Kardashians."

"Okay, I'm sorry. There is no way Kim Kardashian dines at the _Grape Leaf_," Mindy stopped to squint and read a framed certificate on the dingy wall behind the register, " 'named Honorable Mentioned for Most Decent Gyro in the City.'"

"You don't know! She might!"

"She only wants the best! Every time!"

"Okay, enough!" Danny barked. "Sam, where's Milo?"

"In Toronto. Visiting relatives, I think."

"What about Beverly?"

Sam nodded his head towards the same corner as the private room entrance. "In the kitchen. You know she never leaves here."

Rather than wait for Sam's permission, Danny walked towards the kitchen's swinging doors with Mindy close behind. He hadn't stepped into this kitchen since an investigation two years ago, yet it still retained the same stench of stale dishwater and raw meat. Thankfully there were no roaches this time. The sound of clanging stock pots preceded the sight of a wiry woman with her hair in a large bun, hunched over a stove. Danny always liked Beverly, but never ate here when she was cooking - mainly due to her lack of a hairnet or standards when it came to cleaning the grill.

"Beverly," he called out over the clatter. She turned around at once, her face maintaining a look of determination. Her brows shot upward when she recognized him.

"Well, hey there, handsome!" she greeted in her raspy voice. "Long time no see...which is a good thing, I guess."

"How are you, sweetheart?" The smile he gave her was genuine. Beverly was a firecracker of a woman. He told her on more than one occasion that she reminded him of some of his older aunts: blunt, full of attitude, and with a laugh that sounded like a mischievous roar.

"Same ol' aches and idiots," she sighed as she moved the undoubtedly heavy pot to another burner. "But I know you didn't come all the way over here to talk about my new boyfriend and my raging bunion. What can I help you with, Danny? And who are you, lady?"

Mindy blinked, caught off guard by the sudden acknowledgment.. "Uh, Detective Lahiri. I'm Detective Castellano's partner."

"Oooh, 'Detective Castellano?' Fancy." Beverly gave a knowing smile as she grabbed a nearby cloth and dried her hands.

"Can you tell me what you know about Josh Daniels and any of the times he visited the restaurant?"

"The pretty boy with the nice chompers? Yeah, he liked to eat in the private room. Two men used to meet him and they'd all order the same thing: Shawarma, two bowls of chicken-lemon soup, potatoes, and a gyro. Beers all around."

Danny nodded and caught Mindy taking notes out of the corner of his eye. "Any clue who they were?"

"Well," Beverly groaned, slinging the cloth over her shoulder, "there was a squat guy with a mole under his nose and a bad comb-over. Then there was the good-looking guy with long hair. Rumor has it he was an ex-cop. Logan something. Or maybe his last name was Logan."

"Graham Logan?" Mindy spoke up and her note-taking ceased. Danny's head snapped in her direction. With a frown he silently mouthed "How...?"

Beverly looked utterly disinterested as she rose and dropped a single shoulder in a half-shrug. "Probably. He was gorgeous. That's all I know. I only saw them twice, but I can recite that order in my sleep. Nobody else is brave enough to eat the soup...or the shawarma...the beer's a little suspect, too. Nobody should eat here."

* * *

"How do you know about Graham Logan?" Danny immediately asked once they reentered the car.

"Gwen told me about him my first week!" Mindy quickly buckled her seat belt. "We were talking about corruption and hot cops. Logan was a cop out of Jersey, right?"

Danny nodded. "Yeah, and he just kind of faded out."

"Well, the major rumor is that he was found accepting bribes from local drug dealers and when his captain found out, Graham was kind of ushered out quietly to avoid a serious backlash. Then he supposedly fell into this major drug cartel, but I don't know how true that is. But if any of it is even remotely true, then Daniels meeting with him regularly means something major."

"We're obviously closing in on something. There's no way Graham's just gonna meet with us and spill his guts, though."

He watched Mindy chew on the corner of her bottom lip while her face was screwed in deep thought. "Hmm...we should sleep on this one. I mean, I hope we get to go undercover. That would be amazing."

"No, it's not," Danny countered. "The paperwork, the silly costumes..."

"I have never met a detective who didn't like undercover work."

"Well, I guess I'm enigma, then," Danny smiled. Mindy smiled back.

"Well, that's one way to describe you."

"Oh, yeah? How else would you describe me?"

Mindy laughed. "Oh, there's not enough time for that. But there will be plenty of time tonight when you come to my trivia night."

Danny had forgotten about her party entirely.

"Uh, I – um," he stuttered, which made him immediately want to slam his head against the steering wheel. _Smooth_. Before he could continue, Mindy held up a hand.

"Before you give me some awful excuse, save it. You're coming. I bought you some gross beer and if I have to hear Maggie's husband complain that he's the only guy there all night, I'm immediately taking it out on you tomorrow."

She stared at him with raised eyebrows and the slight upturn of her lip. He could tell that she was already internally celebrating her victory over him and simply waiting for his acquiescence like a wave of a white flag. He dropped the back of his head against the headrest in defeat.

"Do I need to bring anything?" he asked.

If he hadn't found Mindy's smile so beautiful, he would have considered it mocking. "Just your winning attitude…and maybe some dip."


	8. Chapter 8

The commotion behind the closed door made Danny hesitant to knock. He stood in Mindy's hallway with a paper bag in one arm as he listened intently, trying to guess the apartment's current occupancy before entering and committing to the night. Trivia night sounded like a much smaller gathering originally. How many adults could she convince to spend their evening playing board games on their free time, even with the promise of booze? Eight, tops?

With an ear pressed to the door it was very clear that there were more than eight people on the other side, laughing and socializing. It was an awfully daunting sound. He wouldn't know a single person aside from the host and he couldn't expect to just hang around her all night - not that he would have minded.

Just as he contemplated turning around and leaving without a trace the door swung open with a blond woman carrying a small garbage bag, an apartment full of wandering guests behind her. She stared at Danny questioningly, which filled Danny with momentary relief. This was clearly the wrong apartment.

"I'm sorry," he said, trying not to smile to widely. "I think I'm at the wrong-"

"You Mindy's partner?"

The question was so abrupt that Danny almost forgot to answer. When the woman's eyes narrowed expectantly he snapped out of his surprise long enough to answer. "Oh, um, yeah. I'm Danny. Danny Castellano."

He had enough manners to hold out his hand for a handshake, which the woman took while still keeping her eyes on his face. "Wow, Mindy was right. You are a very beautiful man. She might have even downplayed it a little bit."

The compliment genuinely flattered him, especially knowing that it came from Mindy. Danny smiled and gave her a small nod. "That's very nice of you. Thank you."

"I'm serious," she continued, now leaning against the doorframe with one arm while the other still gripped the bag. "Why the hell are you a cop? You should be an underwear model on one of those billboards outside of my gynecologist's office. You're _that_ handsome."

"I don't, um…" Danny tittered nervously. "I have no clue how to respond to any of that."

"**Maggie**!" squeaked a familiar voice from behind the blonde. Danny peeked around the blonde to find Mindy rushing towards them, looking mildly embarrassed. In a knee-length plaid skirt and sleeveless blue top, she looked beautiful and mortified. "Can you please stop torturing him and let him in?"

"Sorry, sorry," Maggie stepped to the side enough to allow Danny to enter. "Mindy, you said he was a looker, but you were being weirdly modest! Maybe if we had a few guys like him at our precinct you would have never ended up with Tom, right?"

_Tom?_ Danny thought and quickly looked to Mindy for some sort of elaboration. Instead he found her rolling her eyes in a way that almost looked painful.

"We don't talk about him, Maggie," she warned. "And I thought you volunteered to take out the trash."

Maggie sighed dramatically. "Alright, your highness. Oh, can you make sure my husband doesn't eat any more of those mini quiches? I refuse to listen to him moan about Tums and his delicate digestive system tonight. No patience for it."

"Sure."

The woman left and Mindy turned to Danny with a short, uncomfortable laugh. "So, you met Maggie."

"That's your old partner, right? The one you were a bridesmaid for."

"You remembered!" Danny eased a little at the sound of wonder in her tone. "Yeah, that's her. Believe it or not, she hasn't had a drop of alcohol yet."

"Oh, so that's all her?"

"Mm-hm. That's just her incredibly shy, clearly introverted personality."

The pair laughed as Mindy took the paper bag from Danny's possession. She looked inside. "Chips and salsa! Thank you so much!"

"Not a problem." Danny eased his jacket off and finally took a look around. There were possibly thirty people milling around, chatting a drinking. "This is a big turnout for a game night."

Mindy looked proud as she extracted the snacks from the bag. "My game nights are pretty legendary. You'll definitely want to make sure that you're on my team if you care about winning at all. Hey, do you want a beer?" She turned around and quickly extracted an untouched six pack from the deep recesses of her refrigerator. "I've been hiding this. Carl was eying it earlier before he got distracted by the mini quiches."

Smiling, Danny accepted the bottle Mindy offered to him. "You really didn't have to go through the trouble, Mindy. But thank you! I do like this particular beer a lot, actually."

"Good!" She seemed genuinely pleased with herself as she grabbed a cup and prepared herself a drink. "I just looked for labels that had an American flag, a bald eagle, or an arrogant-looking Colonial era guy on them. This one had all three!"

Danny laughed and shook his head as he took a sip from his bottle. When he pulled the bottle away from his lips he asked, "So, did you work with most of these people at your last precinct?"

"Some." She took a few gulps and pointing her free pinky towards a group of people in the corner. "Those are friends I made in the academy, the people on the couch are neighbors, and there are one or two people here that I don't like all that much, but they just kind of find their way into these things regardless."

"Ah."

"And I should warn you..." She came around the counter in order to get close enough to talk more discreetly. "You're getting heavily gawked at right now. Like, _seriously_ checked out. And there are a few here who are pretty intense, so I'd tread lightly."

Rather than risk any unintentional eye contact, he simply leaned forward and replied "If it makes no difference to you, I'm just going to hold back on the mingling for now. I wouldn't want to drive any of your friends wild with my unmatchable charm."

Mindy punched his arm playfully at the sight of his roguish smile and led him into the living room where there were more guests before continuing her role as hostess. One of Mindy's neighbors had a lot of interesting opinions regarding the Daniels case, including the belief that Christina Porter hired a teacher-turned-hitman to kill Josh as a major statement. Another woman gushed over his eyelashes for five solid minutes, which started out flattering until it turned wholly uncomfortable. He eventually moved on to the snack table, where Carl was still stationed. Danny looked over the array of food, from a slow cooker half filled with meatballs to an array of seemingly homemade dips.

"Man, I really half-assed it with my jar of salsa," Danny confessed to the man who had moved on from mini quiches to miniature weenies speared onto toothpicks.

"Yeah, Mindy's snacks are usually pretty stellar," Carl responded. "Maggie gets upset when I relegate myself to the food, but I'm so bad at the games they play and heck, I don't know what to talk about with these women. I gotta say, it's nice to have another guy here."

"Yeah, I bet."

"I used to have Tom to commiserate with during these things," Carl explained around a mouthful of chips. "Sure, he turned out to be a jackass, but he was company."

Danny looked up for a second at the second mention of Tom. "Tom was an ex-boyfriend of Mindy's, right?"

Carl shook his head while preparing to inhale another miniature quiche. "No, ex-_husband_. Cheated on her. Mindy was devastated, but she's a tough woman. She and Maggie were at the gun range a lot for a while during the divorce, though."

The news that Mindy was once married stirred a number of conflicting feelings. It was certainly not, he understood, information that he was at all entitled to. He could count the number of in depth, personal conversations they've had on one hand, so he could understand how the topic of her divorce simply never came up. Simultaneously, he had this inexplicable desire to have known this sooner. Seeing first hand just how much divorce effectively tore down and rebuilt his mother, he held a special respect for women who have had to deal with that particular brand of betrayal (especially after briefly dealing with infidelity himself). It seemed like each day he was reminded at least once just how much he had underestimated her when they first met.

Danny hadn't detected the long silence until he heard Carl say in a panic, "Darnit, I'm not sure if that was supposed to be a secret or not. Maggie's always telling me that I've got a big mouth. Don't tell Mindy, man. I have a feeling she barely likes me as is."

"Oh, uh.." Danny looked around and was relieved to see Mindy heading towards the snack table. "Mindy!" he yelped desperately. "Carl here was just telling me how great the food is at these things!"

"Hell yeah, the food at my parties rocks," she replied with a confident smile. "And now you'll know for the next time. I also give out cute little gift bags, but I totally forgot to put them together. The downside of actually having an eventful work day, I'm afraid."

"It's no big deal, Mindy. I'm sure nobody will notice."

"But _I'll_ notice, which is why I'm going to slip away real quick and put them together."

At that moment, Carl stuffed a meatball into his mouth and really did not look like an optimal choice for socialization. "You know, I can help you out."

"Oh!" She smiled. "Thanks, Danny! The stuff's in my room. It shouldn't take too long."

They squeezed between guests and quickly made their way to the back of the apartment. Mindy turned to Danny with her hand on the knob. "You're not allowed to judge me. My room is adorably cluttered."

"Got it."

Laughing, Mindy flipped the bedroom light switch and led Danny into a room almost entirely covered in discarded clothing. The walls were light and adorned with pictures and framed certificates. Underneath a gaggle of gift bags, candy, and mini wine bottles was surely a bed, but Danny couldn't be sure. He briefly wanted to tease her about the state of her quarters, but decided that keeping his mouth shut would be better than being forced out of the room and back into the party.

"So everyone gets one of each mini chocolate bar and a tiny bottle of wine," she immediately instructed as she reached for the gift bags.

"Geez, you really go all out," Danny marveled, pulling out a large bag of Twix.

"I do! I can't help it, I like hosting. It's a nice way to focus all of my energy into something that isn't work or family drama or…"

"Tom?"

He hadn't meant for it to slip out. The beer wasn't potent enough to blame it on any degree of intoxication, so all he could blame it on was his burning curiosity. The look on Mindy's face – one that shifted from shock to irritation – made him immediately remorseful.

"I'm sorry, Mindy, Really –"

"- It was that stupid Carl, wasn't it?" she spat. "God, I barely like that guy."

"I didn't mean to pry, Honestly, I didn't. It's just that I watched my mother go through the same thing when I was a teen…I totally admire you. It took ma a long time to get past it all. I don't know how long ago it happened, but it's nice to see you so upbeat. I mean it."

"I thought you hated that about me," Mindy challenged.

"I don't. I _couldn't_. I might have been annoyed by it before getting to know you, but I was being a real moron. I'll probably never admit that again, so..."

Mindy exhaled and softened with a small smile. "Thank you. That means a lot."

They returned to their individual tasks - Mindy unfolding the small gift bags while Danny dumped the candy onto a cleared portion of the bed - and silently worked for a few moments before Danny felt it was safe to move the conversation forward.

"Did you work with him?" he asked cautiously.

"Yeah," Mindy replied. "We weren't partners, but we were colleagues." She didn't talk for a few seconds as she started to arrange the bags in a line. "She was a bagel girl."

Danny looked up with raised eyebrows. "Wow, really?"

Mindy nodded. "There was a bagel shop around the corner and she would bring bagels to us a few days a week - boxes and boxes of them - and Tom would always volunteer to help her get them from the car. The shop didn't even deliver!"

Her last sentence came out rather passionately, like she was experiencing the fresh anger all over again. He opened his mouth redirect the conversation, but she continued.

"There were all these signs that I knew in the back of my head weren't right, but I just kind of excused. Like, he would always volunteer to grab lunch if the place was near her, or there was always a reason to go back to the station or stay late. I'd beg to go out on dates and when he finally caved, there were only a few places we could go. We didn't visit any places that were close to where she lived or worked. He was super protective of his phone and would get crazy defensive if I even stared at it for too long. And he always seemed so distant or irritable...unless he was feeling particularly guilty. Then he couldn't keep his hands off me."

In that moment Danny didn't know what to do with his hands or eyes. He just kept filling the bags, fighting the urge to wrap an arm around her shoulder and hug her close to his side. "That's...he's a coward."

"I agree," she said brightly. When he looked up she was smiling, but there was a certain hollowness to it. "The stupid bagel girl finally decided to confront him outside of the station. Law enforcement saved the both of us, because I'm pretty sure I would have murdered one or both of them and started a new life in prison if I wasn't a detective. To my credit, though, I think I'd fare pretty well in the clink."

"Oh, you do?" Danny replied with a slight chuckle.

Mindy smiled and nodded. She reached for the four-pack of mini Chardonnay bottles. "I just felt so foolish. My _job_ is to spot clues and make sense of them, and I'm pretty damn good at it. Why didn't I see this coming?"

Danny sighed. His mother had lamented the same way the one time she had allowed herself to break down in front of him, years after his father's affairs were uncovered. He had no clue what to say back then, but he had a better idea now.

"You did what you were supposed to do as a wife," he said, dropping more candy into the bags. "You vowed to trust him and you did that. You're supposed to look for clues from the bad guys because that's their job as bad guys: to be untrustworthy. You're not supposed to look for clues from the guy that promised to be honest and faithful to you. He didn't do his job, and I'm really sorry for that, Min."

Mindy stared at him in a blank fashion that made him self-conscious, like he had stepped over the line. Was she still in love with him? The possibility made him sick to his stomach. Then, the corner of her mouth slowly turned upward until she was donning a questioning half smile.

"You know, my brother, parents, and Maggie are the only ones in the world who've called me 'Min.'"

"Oh!" He could feel his cheeks growing hotter with embarrassment. "I'm sorry."

"No, don't be," she replied instantly. "I like it when you call me that."

The moment that they shared then, simply staring at each other and both trying their best not to smile too grandly, was both intense and liberating. He would gladly call her Min if that meant that he, in her festive bubbly universe, was special. It had been a long time since he cared about his place in another person's world, and that little bit of confirmation meant everything.

They finally returned to their task, the air around them just a little bit thicker.

"So," Mindy continued. Danny could detect a tiny nervous squeak in her voice. "I never asked you what made you decide to be a cop."

Easy question. "It runs in my family. Both of my grandfathers were cops. So were my parents. My brother decided to go to law school, but it's still law, so...us Castellano really love justice. How about you?"

Mindy plopped a wine bottle in a bag, then reached for another small plastic bag near her pillows. "My dad told me I couldn't."

Danny nodded. He was heard similar stories from Gwen and Shauna about rebelling against their families and sexism. "Did your dad want you to be a doctor or a lawyer?"

"Actually, he wanted me to be a chef," Mindy revealed as a pulled out a sheet of glittery stickers. "My parents met in culinary school and opened a restaurant when they were young. Now they have a successful chain and just expected my brother Rishi and I to continue the legacy. My brother has always been fascinated with the business but I just wasn't. I was proud of my family's success, clearly, but wanted to pursue my own dreams. And for as long as I could remember, I wanted to be in law enforcement."

"Wow, walking away from guaranteed success to put your life in danger for a living? You're kind of a badass, Lahiri."

"Is my badassery still a shock to you, Castellano?" She bumped her shoulder into his with a grin.

"No, it's been very evident to me for a little while now."

Looking at her once more, the embarrassed smile and nervous chew of her lip gave him enough encouragement to flirt a little heavier. "So...I know you didn't have the time before, but now that we're here...how exactly would you describe me?"

Mindy's eyebrows immediately slumped downward as her head tilted back. "Huh?"

"This afternoon in the car," he clarified, dumping the last of the candy in the few remaining bags. "I called myself an enigma, you said that was just one of the many ways to describe and that you'd have more time to elaborate during your party. Well...here we are, so...how would you describe me?"

Her smile returned, only this time it was more apprehensive. "You first."

"No, that's not how this works," Danny denied weakly. He knew refusing her was futile, but he couldn't resist the opportunity to bait her.

"My home, my rules, Danny," she replied in a soft, yet chillingly commanding voice. _Okay, she knows what she's doing_, he thought resolutely. Maintaining their eye contact, he obliged.

"I think you're incredibly stubborn," he began. He waited for her to get offended, but she remained steadfast and unflinching. "And bossy, which is a good thing. Umm…you're also one of the smartest people I've ever worked with. And really kind. Almost nurturing in a way. It's nice."

Mindy beamed pulled some of her hair over her shoulders. "Wow," she responded dreamily, stroking her dark mane. "I'm flattered that you think so highly of my personality. It really is nice to hear your _personality_ so beautifully touted."

_Ah_.

"Subtle, Min," Danny retorted sarcastically.

"I'm not sure what you're accusing me of, Daniel."

Danny shook his head and smiled. "You're gorgeous. You know you are. Everyone calls you my beautiful partner and they're absolutely right."

"Well…it's nice to hear that you think so, too."

It was getting harder to breath and Danny had a hard time stopping his body from inching itself closer to her. "Okay, your turn."

Mindy tilted her head to the side as her hands dropped from her hair. "Well…you are also very stubborn. And cocky in a way that I've grown to appreciate. I think at times you've shown me how protective you can be. And you're still a little mysterious, but you don't seem quite as closed off anymore. Not to me."

He was too busy looking at her face to notice her fingers gently tugging on the end of one of his sleeves. Even a small pull managed to bring them closer. Mindy cleared her throat, then added, "And I'm not too shy to say that you're crazy hot. Like, whoa, man."

They laughed together while Danny rested a hand on Mindy's hip. "You know, your friend Maggie told me that you thought I was really handsome when I got here."

Mindy shrugged as her eyes remained locked on his. "I can't even find it in me to be mad at her right now, to be honest."

As her hand traveled up the contours of his arm, he finally allowed himself to wrap an arm fully around her waist. When she stepped right into his space and settled a hand on the side of his neck, he blew out a grateful sigh. He wanted to say something else – possibly thank her for being so wonderful to him – but his lips were suddenly occupied by the Mindy's as they kissed him firmly. They fit so perfectly that there was no need for hesitance or adjustment. Danny breathed her in and clung to her frame while he kissed her deeply, cataloguing the softness of her lips and the assuredness of her tongue in his memory. He could hear a satisfied hum from the back of Mindy's throat and it somehow reminded him that they were in her room, very near her bed, and totally and unequivocally into each other. All of this made it difficult to pace himself, especially when he could feel Mindy's hands roaming his neck, scalp, back, and rear in such a small window of time. Her movements felt almost frantic, and that spurned him on more. He kissed her harder and she quickly reciprocated, nibbling each other's bottom lips and firmly gripping each other. Just as their lips broke apart and he began to trail kisses along her jaw line, the bedroom door swung open. They quickly looked towards the flood of living room light to find Maggie, who looked greatly amused.

"Well!" she cried, remaining at the frame of the door. "I was going to suggest that we start the game before people got too drunk, but I don't think anyone here would mind if we downgraded the night to a tipsy hang out. I'll just leave –"

"Uh, no!" Mindy blurted, still in Danny's embrace. "No, that would be totally rude of me. The bags are done, I'm just gonna, uh…"

Mindy began to step back while she kept one hand on Danny's elbow. "I totally didn't get to put the stupid decorative stickers on the bag, but fuck it. Just give me a minute, Mags. I'll be right out."

Maggie said nothing, opting to simply look at Danny with wiggling eyebrows as she exited. Danny looked at Mindy, at a loss of what to say. He wasn't sure if he should apologize or ask her on a date. "Min –"

"Tonight's clearly a bad night to talk about…" she gestured sloppily between them and grabbed a few bags haphazardly. She hurriedly made her way to the door, each step knocking a little more wind out of his body. He thought she was going to walk out of the room completely and never acknowledge the kiss again until she turned around with a barely contained spark in her eyes.

"We're talking about this tomorrow, Dan," Mindy assured him demurely as she quickly fixed herself. "I hope you don't mind if I call you 'Dan.'"

A slow smile crept across Danny's face as he replied, "Not at all, Min. We'll talk tomorrow."


	9. Chapter 9

"So, Castellano…I'm hearing around the office that your case is at a standstill."

Though he was in no mood to think about the current hurdle in his investigation, Danny was at least appreciative of the fact that Gwen had the decency not to sound smug. Defending his and Mindy's modest progress so early in the morning was going to require more sustenance than a bowl of oatmeal.

"Are you hearing this 'around' or from Mindy?" he mumbled. Mentioning her name –especially her full name - out loud after the previous night somehow felt odd. Also, knowing that she was somewhere around the headquarters and hadn't talked to him yet caused a curiously nervous flutter in his stomach. They seemed to be on good terms when he left (and he could punch Carl and his low alcohol tolerance for making it impossible to talk to Mindy at the end of the night. He'd never witnessed someone vomit so much after only three beers). Now he was worried that a night's rest had somehow made her reconsider their new development. The only thing that managed to change for him since their kiss was his steadily mounting desire for her. It may have been way too early to tell, but there was still the possibility that Mindy was planning to avoid him out of regret. This, Danny concluded, was easily the worst part about finally getting what you wanted: waiting on some sort of confirmation that you get to keep it.

"Mindy?" Gwen repeated with an expression of keen interest. "Did you just call her 'Mindy?' What, no 'Lahiri' or "Dead Weight?'"

"Mindy's her name, isn't it?"

"It is," she agreed reluctantly. "And yes, she did tell me this morning that things were at a temporary halt."

"So I'm guessing you're here to gloat?"

Gwen began to pour herself a mug of coffee while giving a slight shake of her head. "No, I'm actually kind of impressed! By now you'd be chewing off your hand to keep from arresting someone as a last ditch effort. Hearing that you're actually taking your time with this one is pretty impressive."

Danny shrugged. "Well, it's not like we're left with a whole lot of options. Nothing on tape, no murder weapon, no solid motive…"

"So, what's your next move?"

Danny leaned back in his chair and thought about the question for a moment. "Well, we've gotta talk to that Graham Logan guy eventually."

"And actually get a straight, honest answer out of the guy? Good luck with that."

"Well, we don't have a wealth of options here aside from waiting for the toxicology reports in a few weeks."

Gwen nodded automatically as she sipped. "So you're pretty much idle for the next couple of weeks, basically."

"Well, I wouldn't say _idle_," Danny stressed. "Min and I will just use the down time to review the evidence and witness accounts we've got."

Peering over the rim of her large mug, Gwen looked at him pointedly. "Hold on. 'Min and I?' Seriously? Damn, it's worse than I thought!"

"You thought nothing."

"Oh, yes I did! I thought all the things!"

Much to his irritation, her contagious excitement elicited a very reluctant grin from him as he stood to make his exit from the break room. "Go do some work, Grandy."

"Whatever, Castellano. Shauna's gonna have a field day with this one."

The morning dragged considerably. By 11:00 a.m. Danny had spoken to literally everyone but Mindy. Even Charlie had approached him about the details of a solved case from the previous year. With each passing moment he could feel the pressure to come up with a reasonable excuse to see her that wouldn't feel like some sort of trap. They could discuss the evidence they were already very familiar with, or he could ask for her help on another case that was already ninety percent solved, but it all seemed so transparent. This state of limbo that they had created for themselves in her bedroom made her harder to approach than ever before. The shadow of a possibility that she would label the kiss a mistake seemed to be enough to keep him at bay.

After writing a final report for another case file, his desk phone sounded with a sharp ring. He picked up the phone immediately and just barely managed to give a distracted greeting into the receiver.

"Daniel Castellano."

"Mindy Lahiri, Mr. Formal."

Though it took a moment for him to register the spirited tone of her voice, he felt his earlier anxiety begin to dissipate as he let out a shaky chuckle. "Sorry. I was distracted and didn't check the ID."

"Were you planning to work on the case today?"

"Uh, I wanted to," he answered optimistically while silently berating himself for not sounding more confident. "What, did you have something in mind?"

"I don't know, I figured it might not hurt to look at the surveillance from the fundraiser again. Now that we've met a few of the major players, maybe some things might stand out within a new context?"

It was a good idea, and it sounded just productive enough to not come across as an excuse to be alone with her. "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. When did you want to take a look at it?"

He could hear Mindy consider the questioned with a nondescript hum. "How about in the next hour?"

The time intersected with his lunchtime. "That's perfect. I've got nothing going on."

"Cool. I meet you in Room C in an hour."

Danny was amazed at how quickly time could pass without the handicap of uncertainty. He felt free to focus on other matters in the meantime, busying himself until the arrival of noon. By the time he made it to the room Mindy was already sitting in front of the television patiently with her legs crossed. She turned around and smiled brightly.

"I got us lunch!" she announced proudly. "Ned from Dino's Deli says hello and put extra sauerkraut on your Reuben. Also," she leaned over and pushed a small bag adorned with glittering stickers into view. "You bolted without your goody bag last night, which I obviously blame Carl for. You helped me make it; I figured you might want to enjoy the fruits of your labor."

"Thanks," he smiled. "I love Dino's."

"I know that now!" Mindy exclaimed with a laugh. "I walked in and saw a picture up with you and the owner. Did you really win a pastrami eating contest?"

Danny took a seat next Mindy, graciously accepting the bag containing his lunch. "That was a good day."

"So gross," she groaned, though still smiling. "So what should we take a look at?"

"I'm thinking we should just look at the ballroom footage again," he answered decisively. "If there was any funny business at any of the points of entry, I think someone would have mentioned it by now."

Mindy thumbed through the number of disks sitting on top of the DVR player. "Ballroom it is."

The start of the surveillance was dull with only a few people trickling in. Jason Richmond could be spotted walking around with a young volunteer, presumably giving last minute orders. Nobody else in the frame looked familiar or remotely notable. Danny tried to maintain his attention on the video, but occasionally glanced at Mindy through his periphery. Her focus served to solidify his own. If she could manage to concentrate on their task without making a fool of herself, so could he. His resolve lasted for less than four minutes until Mindy suddenly leaned forward and paused the video with a push of a button.

"We should talk about last night, right?" she blurted while not exactly meeting him eye-to-eye. Admittedly, it was nice to see her nervous.

"We should," he agreed. "Look, Mindy-"

"Min," she corrected softly. Danny beamed at the significance of it, even though she was still reluctant to look up at him fully. Had they not been at the station he would have grabbed her then and kissed her soundly. Instead, he just turned his body a little more towards her, opening up to her.

"Min," he began again. "I don't want you to think that me kissing you was a spur-of-the-moment thing."

"And I don't want you thinking that it was just some side effect of being hella vulnerable in that moment," Mindy replied, chancing a glance at him. "Though I'll admit that talking about my divorce can do that sometimes. I saw a therapist for a while and she said that it was natural for infidelity to trigger this need to feel desired."

Danny nodded, knowing that feeling all too well. "I get that. The one serious girlfriend I had cheated on me, actually."

Mindy looked interested and remorseful at the same time. "Oh, really?"

Danny shrugged it off, not wanted her to get consumed with pity. "Yeah, but Alex was kind of unpredictable to begin with. She liked to travel, get immersed in new crowds…her settling down felt more like an experiment, you know? I was hurt, but I got over it quicker than most would."

Mindy nodded. "Well, that's shitty. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I just wanted you to know that I would get it if you just wanted to feel wanted for a little bit."

"But I didn't!" she insisted, not faltering at his gaze this time. "I mean, yeah, feeling wanted rocked, but that's not why I kissed you."

The assurance felt great. The burden that weighed heavily on his chest lifted with the knowledge that she truly wanted him. He didn't bother to prevent the impending heavy sigh from escaping his lips. "That's not why I kissed you either. I did want you, though. I still do."

He expected her to shy away from the honesty, but she didn't. In fact, she sat a little straighter at his admission, maintaining a glare that almost seemed daring as her lips curled in a smirk. "Well, as tempting as that is…we've got to get a date or five on books before we can really talk about…moving forward."

"Five?!" Danny challenged, only half-joking.

"And sandwiches while we play Where's Waldo with boring security footage doesn't count, Dan."

Danny laughed while scratching the stubble on his chin. "Wow, okay. Well…this Friday. Instead of hanging out with the squad, how about you and I break away on our own? I know this really cool Cuban restaurant that has incredible beer. No crowds and we can talk about whatever you want to talk about."

The smile on Mindy's face was radiant, and it took an award-worthy amount of restraint to not yank her close and kiss her fully. "Okay!" she agreed cheerfully. "It's a date."

"Good. That's _really_ good, actually." He couldn't find it in him to be embarrassed by his eagerness. He was simply ecstatic that their partnership was moving in such a great direction. Settled, Danny eased back into his chair while Mindy leaned forward once more to resume the recording.

"I hope you bring a lot of money with you, Castellano," she joked, then continued in a melodic voice. "Because I'm craaaazy high maintenance."

Danny laughed boisterously as the people on the screen started to mill about again. "Don't you worry about it, Lahiri. I've got this."

Twenty minutes passed and still nothing looked even the least bit noteworthy. Danny did, however, pay special attention to Tamra this time around as she gave her short speech. Within those few minutes she looked unflinchingly supportive and loving.

"Wow, she really played her role, didn't she?" Mindy sighed before taking a bite of her sandwich.

"I was just thinking that," he agreed. "You'd never know from the outside looking in." Shortly after, Josh took the podium and immediately hypnotized the crowd with his glossy smile. As he spoke, Danny couldn't help but feel slightly repulsed by now-apparent phoniness in his delivery. Dead or not, it was hard to be on the side of a man who could have been potentially harboring some potentially dangerous secrets. To his credit, the man knew how to command a room. While he spoke, nobody moved about or even talked amongst their table.

"Do you think he would have won?" he pondered. He was embarrassed to admit that he hadn't kept up with the campaign as much as his coworkers. He looked towards Mindy, who was nodding shallowly.

"Yeah, he probably would have. Classic popular guy syndrome: all the women want him, all the men want to be him…that sort of thing. That usually amounts to a lot of votes, politics be damned."

"How about Christina Porter?"

"Kind of cold, severe…but she knows what she's talking about. Have you been following the election at all?" Before he could stammer for an excuse, Mindy's eyes widened before dropping her sandwich onto the nearby table. "Oh my God!" She pointed at a man sitting at one of the tables. "That's Graham Logan!"

"Hold on. What?" Danny inched his chair forward and squinted in order to make out a gentleman who seemed to blend in, aside from his slicked ponytail. "Are you sure?"

"Gwen and I googled him last week. I can spot that bone structure anywhere. Trust me. **That's** Logan. What the hell is he doing there? You'd think someone that shady wouldn't be at a publicized event like this!"

Looking at the man sitting dutifully on the screen, Danny replied, "Unless he's trying to look like a man with nothing to hide. Some like to hide in plain sight, you know that."

"True, but _shit_," she marveled. "Way to incriminate yourself. Popping up right before Daniels gets taken out? That's not a great look, even at a charity event."

Danny quickly came up with an idea. "Hey, we should get a hold of the donation records from that night. I wouldn't be surprised if he gave Daniels some money."

Mindy looked rightfully skeptical. "Do you really think he'd leave a trail like that? In his actual name, no less?"

"My guess is that if you and Gwen can easily find him during some horned up Google search," he said, ignoring the affronted scoff of his partner, "then he wouldn't bother hiding his identity. With his rep, it's way too late for that anyway. We can look at the list of donors and maybe pull an address. Even if it's a dummy address, it might tell us more than we know right now."

Considering his point, Mindy nodded in agreement. "Okay, so Jason Richmond again?"

"Yeah, but hopefully not for long."

* * *

"You're already working for another campaign?" Mindy asked incredulously the next day as she stood next to the impeccably dressed campaign manager. He diligently dug through a box of files.

"I still have some hefty bills to pay, so yes," he replied in exasperation. "Not to mention, I have a brand new gin habit to fund because Paul Leotard is a _fucking train wreck_ to manage." He whispered the last few words while extracted a thin file. "The man is unelectable. If I can manage to get him to one interview without him being high as a kite, I'll consider it a victory."

"Where is the new golden boy?" Danny asked, getting a little joy out of seeing Jason so frazzled.

"Morgan was supposed to drive him to breakfast, but rushed off to see his grandmother about a heart thing," he said dismissively as he handed over the manila file. "So Paul drove himself. That was two hours ago. He could be anywhere. Literally. I bet he's high."

Mindy didn't wait to enter the car in order to view the ledger of donors. She carefully read the tiny print, line by line. "Jesus. Daniels made some serious bank."

"Not shocked," Danny murmured as he keyed into the vehicle. "Anything out of the ordinary?"

"Not really. A-ha!" She slid into the vehicle as her finger singled out a name. "'Logan, G' donated…GODDAMN! How does he have THAT much money just available to give away?!"

Danny reached over and took the ledger. Searching the print, he quickly spotted Graham's name across a documented gift of ten thousand dollars. "What the hell? That's a lot of cash for a disgraced cop. And the address he listed isn't exactly a neighborhood that screams 'disposable income.'"

"Should we head over there?" Mindy asked. He shook his head.

"Let's maybe scope the place out first."

"Stake out?"

"Yeah. Shit, I really didn't want to, but yeah."

Mindy let out a brief squeal and quick clap of her hands. "Okay, I know you're the too-cool-for-school detective that doesn't get a kick out of stuff like this, but I'm excited."

Danny chuckled. "I'm not gonna be the one to burst your bubble and tell you how boring these stake outs are at night. You'll come to realize on your own." After a dismissive wave of Mindy's hand, Danny came to a disappointing realization. "You know, if we have to do this, that probably means we'll have to postpone our date."

Mindy shrugged. "Do we? If I bring snacks it'll kind of be like dinner and the most realistic-looking movie ever."

"We can do waaay better than that, Min," Danny laughed. "But please bring the snacks, anyway."

That night, the address on the ledger led them to a rickety and seemingly abandoned house sitting in the middle of a shabby neighborhood street. Danny assumed the location was either a decoy or a meeting spot.

"Nobody lives here," he announced as they drove further down the street and parked a few houses away. "Tall grass, cobwebbed garage door...we could be staking out absolutely nothing."

"Are we sure it's not the house next door?" Mindy asked as she went over the address once more. "At least there's a van parked in the drive. Wait, is that a food truck? Man, I love a good food truck."

"No, we've got the right house." He stretched his back before resettling into his seat. "Who knows, maybe he'll turn up with some friends. We've just gotta sit tight for a few hours."

Mindy pulled a pair of binoculars from a small duffel bag at her feet and held them out for Danny to take. "How very patient of you, Danny."

"Yeah, I'm still not a fan of that concept."

The night dragged, the snacks eventually ran out, and the energy drinks wore off far too quickly. All they had to show for a night spent in an SUV was a litter of empty Red Bull cans and a renewed appreciated for their beds. Graham Logan hadn't made a single appearance.

In fact, Graham Logan hadn't manifested once during the three subsequent stake outs that followed.

After a week with no luck, Mindy declared defeat with the rising sun.

"Let's call it," she huffed. "It's getting to a point now where I'm growing angry with every sunrise. It feels like it's mocking us, in a way."

Danny agreed, revving up the engine as he stifled another yawn. "Yeah, this was a bust. The only thing remotely interesting was the sight of that food truck peeling out of the drive the other night."

"Yeah, that was weird. Do you think there was a barbecue emergency?" Mindy joked. "That would be thrilling and delicious."

He knew that she expected him to laugh back, but he was momentarily captivated by her falling ponytail and her cheerful eyes to respond. He leaned across the middle arm rest and laid a gentle kiss on her lips, lingering for a moment before retreating back to his side and securing his seatbelt. Mindy looked stunned, but pleased.

"What?" Danny fired in jest. "A guy can't kiss his partner every once in a while?"

Mindy giggled, shaking her head and retouching her ponytail. "I don't know. Let me ask Lang and Prentice."

Danny headed straight for the station, steeling himself to write another anticlimactic report. They were accosted by Peter the moment they entered the facility.

"Captain wants to see you both," he informed them as he bit loudly into an apple. Danny rolled his eyes and ran a hand through his tousled hair. "Dammit, right now?"

"Yeah, bro, he seemed pretty insistent." Peter walked away, leaving the pair to look at each other curiously.

"We've followed protocol so far, right?" Mindy asked.

Danny recalled their process quickly as they walked towards the captain's office door. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure we've been careful. There might also be some new evidence. It's not necessarily bad."

Shrugging, Mindy replied, "Well, if we're in trouble, I'm pulling the newbie card with little shame. Just a warning."

Despite his confidence that they weren't in any real trouble, Danny did prepare himself for a possible reprimanding. If Captain Shulman asks to see you at the top of the morning, that's typically an indication of something major. Danny's knock was immediately returned with an invitation to enter. When he opened the door, he was greeted with the last sight he could have ever expected after such a fruitless week.

Sitting across from Captain Shulman was a young-looking man with thick curly brown hair and sharp, pointed features. He wore dark suit and his face appeared to be stuck in a permanently smug state.

Next to him was Graham Logan. He didn't look anxious or the least bit dangerous. Actually, he looked rather professional with the exception of his loose hair that fell effortlessly around his shoulders. He looked weirdly pleased to see them...or, Danny considered, he was amused by their sleepy state. Either way, he wanted nothing more than to drag him to the interrogation room.

"Good morning, Detective Castellano, Detective Lahiri," Shulman greeted. "Danny, I'm sure you already know Sergeant Cliff Gilbert from the Narcotics division. And this is Detective Graham Logan."

"Detective?!" Danny repeated, almost shouting. The lack of sufficient sleep hampered his ability to filter disbelief properly. The surprise of hearing this seemingly suspicious man being introduced with a professional title, however, outweighed the need to be polite.

"Danny, good to see you." Cliff extended his hand for a shake, which Danny accepted slowly. Cliff offered the same hand to Mindy. Logan smiled and waved kindly from his seat.

"They've been working undercover for months on the Deslaurier Cartel case," Marc explained, "and stumbled upon some information that they thought was pertinent to the Daniels investigation."

"Wow, you've been undercover?" Mindy asked Graham. "For how long?"

"Almost three months," he boasted. "We finally took the operation down two nights ago. We actually spotted you staking out the dummy house late last week."

Danny leaned against the door with his arms crossed over his chest. "You saw us? From where?"

"You were in the food truck!" Mindy accused. Sargent Gilbert nodded.

"The house behind our decoy house was used as their headquarters of sorts."

Mindy looked as if she were trying to wrangle one of the many questions running amok in her head. She turned to Graham. "Okay, so...you're _not_ a corrupt cop."

"Not at all," he denied vehemently. "We just had to put that story out there so the Deslauriers' would trust me. It took a while, but it eventually worked. The rumors spread a little too wide, though. The lady at the laundromat still gives me dirty looks. She used to love me!"

"What exactly did you find out?" Danny asked in an attempt to redirect the conversation. "How deep was Daniels' involvement?"

Cliff blew out a deep sigh, as if he were about to unload some major information. "Pretty deep. It looked like your typical symbiotic relationship: the cartel essentially floated his campaign financially while Daniels promised to put measures in place that would allow the Deslauriers free reign."

"Measures?" Mindy pressed.

"Back in the day the force had a major issue with corruption," Captain Shulman explained. "There were a number of beat cops, detectives, even a chief – across various department - who were called to the carpet for accepting bribes, turning a blind eye to a lot of stuff, there were even a few who were under the Fishman cartel payroll."

"Wow," Danny mused. "I never knew that."

"Not many did and the mayor at the time wanted it that way," Marc sighed. "Mayor Menken cleaned up everything and barely made a peep doing it."

"We're pretty certain that Daniels' plan was to reinstate a lot of the cops that were ousted under Menken," Graham added. "We'd met with one of the cops quite a few times, actually. They didn't talk too in depth about the future, but they were pretty chummy."

Even with the onslaught of new information, Danny was still having a hard time arriving to any real motive. "It sounds like the Deslauriers needed him if they wanted to have any type of real pull in the city."

"They did," Cliff confirmed firmly. "And once they found out that they no longer had a Trojan horse, things fell apart from within. Finger pointing, backdoor deals...the whole thing imploded."

"We finally managed to catch one of the deals at the headquarters," Graham said. "They got desperate enough to actually involve me. We took 'em down right then."

Marc stood from his chair and began to wander from around his desk. His hands rested on his hips, pushing the flaps of his suit jacket back. "You mentioned finger-pointing..."

"Yeah, a lot of accusations flying around about Daniels' murder," Cliff responded. "All the claims were far fetched and none of them had any sticking power. Watching them for so long, we can vouch that none of them did it."

"So this was an outside job?" Mindy guessed. "If none of them wanted him dead, it would have to have been someone outside of the cartel, right? Are there any notable enemies?"

Graham gave an unsure shake of his head. "To be honest, they kind of just hate everyone. Really arrogant, the Deslauriers. They don't perceive anyone as actual competition. Plus the job looked so sloppy, I doubt it was anyone who was a real threat to their operation...or at least nobody that _should_ have been a threat."

Danny could see the familiar symptoms of a dead end. The bad guy wasn't really a bad guy. A clear enemy couldn't be found anywhere. Even the cartel had an alibi, courtesy of the NYPD.

A harsh exhale came from Mindy's direction, but when he looked at her he saw a tight lipped smile. "You know, this is great," she said brightly, though the enthusiasm seemed forced for the very first time. She nodded as her gaze fell to the floor, appearing to be convincing herself of her optimism more than the others. "No, this is good. It all has to be connected somehow, right? We've just gotta do some serious research and go from there. Maybe we can talk to the medical examiner, uh...shit, what's his name?"

"Reed," Danny supplied automatically. "Jeremy Reed."

"Yes!" Mindy cried. "Let's see if he can rush the toxicology results, just so it's out of the way."

Cliff checked his watch quickly. His eyebrows shot up immediately. "We've gotta go," he announced as he stood, prompting Graham to stand up as well. Cliff handed Danny a file that had been wedged between his thigh and the seat. "Here are some of the particulars regarding our bust, as well as correspondence between Daniels and the Deslauriers that we recovered from our searches. Hopefully it helps."

Danny thanked Cliff with firm handshake. "We appreciate this, Sergeant."

"No problem. Just catch the bastard."

The visitors left the captain's office (not without the rapt attention of Gwen and Shauna) with Danny and Mindy just behind them. Danny tossed the file onto his desk with little regard. "We're screwed."

"We're _not_," Mindy countered gently. "We just need to hit this from another angle. We know a lot more than we did an hour ago. That makes a huge difference, doesn't it?"

"I don't know, Min," he sighed, settling slowly at his desk. "I really hope it does. We've gotta figure out something."

"We will. What other choice do we have?"

* * *

** A/N: I just needed to extend another thank you to the-omniscient-narrator (tumblr)/Calliope_Soars (AO3) for being the best beta/friend I could ever ask for! **

**Don't be shy! Leave a review/comment. I love hearing from you all and I appreciate it more than you know!**

**Hollaatchyagirl,**

**Phunky**


	10. Chapter 10

"So what did Dr. Reed say about speeding up the toxicology results?"

"Hey, I thought you said no shop talk outside of work. I think dates definitely constitute as 'out of work.'"

Mindy's head lolled with an exaggerated groan. Their dinner at Habana 26 has been a satisfyingly talkative one. Their shared refrain from work discussion (up to this point) has actually been quite impressive. "Danny, look around. We've been here for hours. The servers are stacking chairs on top of the tables at the other half of the restaurant and the cook is giving us the death glare. We've talked about everything. I think you even know my menstrual cycle at this point – which I'm sorry about, by the way."

"It's fine," Danny laughed.

"I totally misunderstood what you said."

Smiling, Danny shrugged. "Really, it's okay. Besides, I've heard Shauna and Betsy talk about way worse."

"Wait, _Betsy_?!" Mindy leaned forward. "In administration? She gave me an entire back story on one of her Precious Moments figurines – okay, stop distracting me. I really want to know."

Danny conceded. "Well, after taunting me for five minutes about asking him for a favor, he agreed to 'aim' for next Thursday."

"That's great!"

"Eh." He dragged a fingertip through the condensation on his water glass with a pained grimace. "I think he enjoyed the fact that I was asking for his help a little too much. He revels in having something to lord over my head."

With a snort, Mindy observed, "You make him sound like an evil villain."

"Well, with that stupid accent of his, just about everything sounds evil."

"Ooh, he has an accent? What kind of accent?"

Danny narrowed his eyes at the sight of her obvious interest. "He's English." With that tidbit, he quickly spotted the visible melting he'd recognized in some of his other colleagues. The fact that Jeremy was such a heartthrob, even to those who have never seen him before, was very annoying. "Okay, relax."

"Danny, British accents are undeniably sexy," Mindy said informatively.

"Oh, are they?" Danny didn't mean for his tone to sound quite as sharp. This brand of jealously felt petty. He was relieved to see Mindy smile rather than look turned off. She reached out lightly touch the top of his hand with her finger, rubbing it gently.

"But not nearly as sexy as a Staten Island accent."

His smile was unstoppable. "Oh, _excellent _save, Min."

"I thought it was, yeah," Mindy giggled.

Danny flipped his hand and clasped it with hers. "Well, just try not to drown in his charm."

"Don't be so paranoid, Castellano," Mindy sighed. "You, sir, have my undivided attention."

* * *

"Holy crap, you're handsome as shit!"

Jeremy Reed's characteristic haughtiness was something Danny had come to expect, but still managed to get under his skin. The sight of the dashing man in scrubs soaking in Mindy's brazen praise made him want to turn around take both of them out of the lab, with or without their results.

"Well, that's quite the compliment, coming from a stunning woman such as yourself," Jeremy replied in an overly smooth tone. His smile was almost scandalous in nature.

"I'm serious," Mindy continued in awe. "Why have a face like that if you're just going to be stuck around dead people all day? I mean…" She trailed off in order to look at Danny shamefully. Her eyes conveyed a sort of apology that she couldn't vocalize just then. Pushing her shoulders back, she returned her attention to Jeremy. "You're handsome, but I _do not_ want you."

Danny found her unnecessary rejection of Jeremy equal parts pandering and relieving.

"Ah." Jeremy tilted his head, maintaining a crooked smile. "Pity."

"Okay, Reed," Danny finally spoke up, audibly exasperated. "Can you maybe pause the flirting long enough to give us our results?"

Jeremy raised a placating hand. "Of course." He walked over to an illuminated counter close to the exit and grabbed a packet of paper stapled together. Looking over the first page Jeremy reported, "Your victim definitely fell on the very unforgiving blade of a pocket knife, I'm afraid. A puncture of the lung and excessive blood loss seem to have done the trick."

He couldn't say he was disappointed or that he had expected to hear differently, but he could still feel the shred of hope that he held onto slip through his fingers. Mindy was right, though: it was good to get it out of the way.

"Alright," Danny sighed, "well, it's not like that's a shock or anything."

"No, I imagine it wouldn't be," Jeremy rushed to respond, "but I'm not finished. We did find something rather interesting in his system: an alarmingly high concentration of felodipine, a calcium channel blocker prescribed for hypertension and angina."

"You say the concentration was high. Was it like an overdose?" Mindy probed.

"Not quite, but almost as high…which is interesting because none of his medical records show any sort of treatment for hypertension or even elevated blood pressure. He was actually in relatively great health."

Danny leaned against the nearest surface while he processed this new development. "Do people get high off of this felodipine?"

"Recreationally?" Dr. Reed's eyebrows sloped in sudden concentration. "Possibly amongst the desperate, but I haven't seen anything of the sort come through here."

"God, this is so weird," Mindy said. "Do you think the drug played any role in his death at all, Dr. Reed?"

"Not in this case, no," he answered. "And unless he had a severe allergic reaction to it or an affinity for large quantities of grapefruit, I don't see how this would have killed him otherwise."

The mention of grapefruit triggered Danny's attention instantly. "Grapefruit? Are you saying this drug mixed with grapefruit –"

"-can create a pretty toxic reaction, yes," Jeremy added. "Any doctor who cared to keep his or her license would advise any patient to wait 48 -72 hours to take felodipine if they've had any sort of grapefruit or grapefruit juice, just to make sure it was completely flushed from their system."

Danny looked at Mindy, who was already staring at him with a look of renewed determination. He glanced back at the examiner. "So was that all you found?"

"That's all," he replied. "There were no other chemicals in his body at the time of death. And I've already sent a copy of our findings to Betsy."

"That's great. Thank you so much," Mindy said distractedly as she headed quickly for the door. Danny gave a parting nod to the doctor as he followed Mindy closely. She was already working out the possibilities out loud.

"If Jason was right about him having grapefruit juice every morning," she began to reason, "then there's no way Josh would voluntarily take the felodipine. Someone got it into his system without him knowing. And I doubt the grapefruit thing is a coincidence. It had to be someone who knew that he drank the stuff."

"Which was probably his wife and everyone at his campaign headquarters. Tamra's alibi checked out, so that leaves almost his entire campaign team. But why go after the man you're trying to get elected?" Danny questioned as they reached the car. "And why drug a man if you were planning on stabbing him in the first place? That's the part is especially weird. Why do both?"

Mindy shrugged. "Panic, possibly? The whole job looks like a panicked mess, between dumping him in that garage …"

Danny froze at the mention of the garage, quickly reminded of a hang-up had when the case was so young. He dragged one hand down the side of his face while the other gripped the Trailblazer door handle. "I just figured out what bugged me about the cameras."

"You did?" Mindy asked. "Mind sharing?"

Danny stepped away from the driver's door and dug into his pants pocket. He fished out his keys. "Yeah, I just need a minute to check out something. Feel like driving to the station?" He tossed to the keys to her, which she caught in spite of her astonishment.

"You're actually relinquishing the driver's seat? Is this happening?"

"Don't get excited, Lahiri." The firmness in his voice was completely undermined by the half smile refusing to be suppressed. "We're maybe ten minutes away."

"Sorry, Danny! I can't hear you over the sweet, sweet roar of compromise."

"Ridiculous," he mumbled affectionately under his breath as he slid into the passenger's seat for the first time. The need to chase this unexpected breakthrough felt more important than relishing the new experience. After securing his seatbelt he went to work scanning through the images saved onto the department tablet. Once he found the photo of the crime scene, he tapped the surveillance cameras in the shot.

"Those cameras," he announced. "I knew something felt off."

"What are you talking about?" Mindy pulled out of the space a little quicker than Danny felt was necessary, but chose to continue his point rather than voice that particular opinion.

"Both cameras are pointing in the exact direction where the body was discovered," Danny pointed out. "You can tell by the encasing that these cameras don't move, so they had to be in this exact position when the body was dropped off. And the lighting makes them impossible to miss. It's kind of a bold move to dump Daniels in front of some cameras unless – and I know this could be a stretch – what if the killer knew that these cameras were broken? What if they already knew this spot would be a safe one?"

A few seconds of silence were enough for Danny to know that Mindy was considering his hypothesis, which was reassuring. If it were entirely ridiculous, he was sure she would have told him as much.

"Who would just know information like that?" Mindy asked. "Heather _lives_ there and she wasn't even aware."

"I took in a perp six months ago who would rob people next to the convenience store on 15th because the cameras that were 'being fixed' never go replaced and the area was rarely patrolled," Danny explained. "This could be the same thing. Even in a panic, if you're cognizant enough to attempt to move a body, you're cognizant enough to at least check for cameras. And you'd have to be pretty confident to see two of them and not be concerned."

"'s true," Mindy murmured as she made a sharp left turn. "So our suspect is a possible member of Daniels' campaign, could have access to some serious prescriptions, and is possibly knowledgeable of the shadier parts of town. Does anyone come to mind?"

"You managed to secure an alibi for Richmond a few weeks ago, right?"

Mindy nodded. "The hotel vouched for him. We need to take a closer look at those volunteers, though."

A persistent, niggling feeling told Danny that that wouldn't be necessary. "Before we go down that path, let's just make sure we're not overlooking anything obvious. When we get to the precinct-" Danny was cut off by another sharp turn, this time causing him to brace himself against door. "_If_ we make it to the precinct, I mean! Min, you're a terrible driver!"

Rolling her eyes, she replied, "You and Maggie are so dramatic. We'll make it, you loon."

"Well if we do, we should look over the evidence one more time, including the stuff from Gilbert and Logan."

"Okay. I think we should also take a look at some of those ex-crooked cops that Josh was planning to reinstate. Maybe he inherited some of their enemies."

"Good idea."

When the arrived to the station (three minutes sooner than they should have, Danny noted) Danny ambled out of the SUV and quickly met Mindy on the other side.

"I should have you arrested for reckless endangerment," Danny accused. "You're kind of bad behind the wheel."

"Oh, stop,' she dismissed with a grin as she pushed past him. "We made it just like I said we would. Now we're going to look over what we have until we find something solid. Then we're going to find our killer, arrest him, and you're going to take me to the most expensive restaurant in the city to celebrate."

"Does it have to be the most expensive one?"

"Of course! Always."

Thought it was apparent that she was kidding, Danny quickly assessed that he wouldn't have minded if she hadn't been.

They agreed to split up the duties to maximize efficiency: Mindy would reexamine the evidence they've collected up to this point while Danny agreed to take a look at information passed along by Sergeant Gilbert and his division. The folder was mostly filled with covertly taken photographs of the victim with various shifty-looking characters. One picture featured a man that fit the description Beverly had provided to them weeks ago: short and a slightly round with a dark mole just under his left nostril and sparse, dark hair slicked over his pale scalp. In all of the prints Danny recognized the smile Josh used amongst these thugs as the same one he unleashed on his supporters. He held onto the same disgusting ease amongst both crowds.

Some of the pictures solely featured the Daniels' associates. One that contained the squat gentleman was labeled "Phil Dayflower." Danny tapped the glossy finish.

"I'm pretty sure I've heard this name before," he announced to Mindy, who had created a makeshift working station on the opposite side of his desk. "Phil Dayflower. The name sticks out, but I can't remember why."

Mindy shrugged, then looked up as Shauna walked by. "Hey, I bet Shauna would know. Shauna!" When the woman turned around, Mindy beckoned her over with a quickly waving hand. As she approached the desk, Danny flipped the picture so she could view it.

"Phil Dayflower," he repeated. "Why do I know that name?"

Leaning forward, she took print between her thumb and pointer fingers and looked at his face closely. "Phil Dayflower. Dayflower, Day – Oh yeah! This is the guy whose partner shot a drug dealer who he claimed threatened him. The man was on life support forever. The family claimed that officer was crooked and shot him because he threatened to go to the police with evidence."

"Wait, he was a drug dealer who planned on actually outing a crooked cop?" Mindy questioned.

"The word is that he wanted to go straight," Shauna explained, handing the photo back to Danny. "He was a dealer under the Fishman family, which a few cops were banking off of."

"Right, Shulman mentioned that," Danny mumbled.

"Well, this guy supposedly had enough information to bring the whole operation down. Dayflower's partner didn't like it. They got into a scuffle in front of him and the next thing you know this guy's got a bullet in his stomach. Dayflower and his partner say their lives were threatened, the family says there's no way. There was a gun on victim, though, and a lack of evidence that he was planning to go to the authorities, so nobody took the family's claims seriously."

Danny blew out a heavy sigh while Mindy came around to his side of the desk and opened up an internet browser on his desktop. "Do you think the family was telling the truth?"

Shauna raised her eyebrows and nodded slightly. "The guy that fired the shot was real quick to retire after that. Dayflower ended up being one of the cops that Menken sent packing."

"Hmm."

"Yeah."

Mindy pivoted the monitor so that it faced Danny and Shauna a little more. "So this all happened about six years ago, right?"

"Yeah," Shauna confirmed. "Just about."

Mindy scanned a few articles, including one that included a photo of a thinner Dayflower with much more hair. "Shit," Mindy muttered. "Six years can really make a difference."

The article scrolled quickly under Mindy's command, the text becoming nothing more than a jumbled block of black. They had reached halfway down the page when a small mugshot appeared on the far left side.

"Wait!" Shauna called out. Danny could now feel her hovering over him as she pointed at the shot. "That's the guy! That's the guy he shot."

The man in the picture looked young, like he was in his mid-twenties. With a thick mane of dark brown hair and a strong jaw line, he would have looked much more handsome without the dark circles around his eyes. His expression was that of faux defiance. Despite his narrowed eyes and jutted out chin, he looked just as scared as any of the other rookie criminals that went through processing. Danny could easily picture him trying to go clean. Then he took a look at the caption. His blood ran cold and his mouth went agape.

"Hey, Min," he nudged her gently. "Check out the caption. Look at his name."

He waited for the information to register with Mindy before saying anything further. As soon as her mouth dropped open and her head reared back just a fraction, he knew she had joined his line of thinking.

"No way," she said breathlessly. She pointed at the name. "That's not a coincidence."

Danny agreed, then stood from his chair carefully as not to collide with Shauna. "C'mon, let's go talk to the captain, then we can head out ASAP."

Mindy wordlessly stood and joined his side as they headed in the direction of Captain Shulman.

* * *

Two hours later they were knocking on the door of a rundown-looking apartment. The barks of several dogs responded to the pounding instantly.

"Calm down, all of you!" a voice yelled as it neared. Danny braced himself as the lock clicked. When the door opened with a loud creak, Mindy was the first speak.

"Morgan Tookers?"

"Detective Lahiri, Detective Castellano," he greeted with confusion. "Can I help you?"

"You can," Mindy responded firmly. "We need to search your apartment as well as your car."

Morgan remained in his position, blocking the doorway. His expression grew harder. "For what?"

Danny cleared his throat and said authoritatively, "Mr. Tookers, will you step outside of the apartment please? This shouldn't take long."

There was some hesitation and Danny wondered if Morgan planned to run. There wouldn't be many places to go between the small complex, limited exits, and the group of detectives waiting outside for their signal to proceed. Still, he prepared himself for the possibility of engaging in a brief chase, should the opportunity arise. When he didn't move, Mindy stepped forward.

"Mr. Tookers, please step out of the apartment."

He opened his mouth to argue, but appeared to have thought better of it when his mouth clamped shut and he slowly stepped away from the door.

"Morgan, if you'll be so kind as to lead us to your car and open the doors for us," Danny instructed. Both him and Mindy pulled out pairs of gloves from the uniformed jackets and secured them over their hands as Morgan led them dutifully to his black Chrysler.

"It might kind of a mess," Morgan warned, his voice shaky as they neared the car. He stopped when he saw Charlie, Gwen, Peter, Captain Shulman, and Shauna waiting for them. "Whoa, what the hell are all these people doing here?!"

"They're here to aid in making this search as painless as possible," Danny responded calmly. "Now, can you please open the doors and two of our officers will search the apartment. Are any of your pets attackers?"

Morgan opened the driver's door and unlocked the vehicle with one button. "My dogs are the sweetest things to walk this earth. They'll just love them to death." With that, Charlie and Gwen made their way to the apartment entrance while Peter and Shauna remained outside as backup. Danny began searching the front from the passenger's side while Mindy searched the spacious backseat.

"Can you open up the trunk as well, please?" Mindy asked authoritatively.

"This is ridiculous!"

"Look, buddy, the sooner you cooperate, the sooner we can get this over with," Danny snapped. "Now, I believe my partner asked you to open the trunk."

Mumbling curses under his breath, Morgan leaned downward and pulled a lever that opened the trunk with a loud pop. He then stepped away and allowed them to continue their search. There were a few trash items that littered the floor and were pushed under the seat, but nothing that could truly obstruct their mission. He could hear Mindy's gloves loudly swiping the leather interior and the car gently rocked with movements. Danny flipped the floor mats opened the glove compartments, but could not find anything. When he looked under the seat he could see Mindy's hand carefully checking the floor for any openings or suspiciously lifted carpet. Finding nothing, he migrated over to the driver's side. He noted the carefully blank expression on Morgan's face.

"Is there anything that we should know about in this car?" Danny asked.

Morgan simply shook his head and Danny crouched carefully to begin searching under the seat, just as he had on the other side. When he looked underneath, all he could find was a soda can crammed into a paper bag. Like the rest of the trash, he carefully extracted it while Mindy began to sit up.

"Nothing back here," she announced. "I'm gonna look in the trunk."

"I'm finding nothing but trash myself," Danny sighed. "Maybe Lang and Grandy will stumble upon…"

He stopped just as he was about to toss the can and bag back on the floor until he noticed the large label on the other side. Though the paper was crumpled and the text on the label was faded, the pharmacy label in the corner was quite clear. He skimmed the lettering quickly until he found the prescription name of Plendil. Next to the name in parenthesis is read "felodipine."

"Min," he called out coolly, though his heart was beating at a maddeningly quick pace. "Look at this."

He handed her the bag, making sure that his finger was just underneath the description for her to see. She read it carefully, raising her voice just loud enough so that Danny could hear the warning about grapefruit interaction printed in the section below.

"That's my grandmother's," Morgan explained with a cracked voice. "She's got a few heart issues and really bad hypertension."

Mindy held up the bag after separating it from the can and held it out to Captain Shulman, who already had a clear evidence bag open and ready receive. "It's funny," she said in a light voice. "Josh's body had an awful lot of felodipine in his system. Coincidence, you think?"

Morgan didn't answer – not that Danny expected him to – and Mindy didn't push for a response. She simply deposited the paper bag into the plastic one and moved onto the trunk. She opened it wide and found it to be absolutely empty. Unfazed, she pulled out a small flashlight from her pocket and began to inspect closely. Danny turned to Morgan.

"You know, Mr. Daniels medical records showed that he had pretty exemplary health. Why do you think he'd take the Plendil?"

"I don't know," Morgan answered without elaboration, simply shrugging and standing with his arms crossed over his chest. It didn't take long for Mindy to beckon him over to where she was standing. Once there, she shined a light on the hard plastic casing in the far right corner. Though the material was pitch black, they could still see a purplish metallic streak about the width of a piece of Scotch tape. Underneath it was a small dark brown spot along the edge of the gray felt lining.

"Interesting," Danny murmured. Just then, Charlie and Gwen exited the apartment and were walking purposefully towards Mindy and Danny. Charlie was clinging to a rolled up evidence bag.

"Take a look at this," he said, unrolling the bag as Gwen positioned herself directly next to Morgan. Inside the bag was a small, shining pocket knife. He flipped to the side with engraving in the handle and held it out for both of them to see. "This was underneath his mattress. The blade is clean, but if you look in the engraving there's dried blood. Look even closer, you'll see a small strand of hair. It's mostly matted down with the blood, but the tip looks blond."

When all three detectives turned to Morgan, he refused to look any of them in the eye. Danny walked over until he was standing directly in front of him. "Do you have anything to say?"

Everyone waited silently. Morgan said nothing. Finally Danny moved behind him while grabbing one of his wrists. Gwen assisted in grabbing his other wrist as Danny unclipped a pair of handcuffs from his waist.

"Morgan Tookers," he announced as he secured the metal over his wrist with a click, "You're under arrest for the murder of Josh Daniels."


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: This is the final chapter of this story. Stay tuned for the epilogue! And thank you so much for the support!**

* * *

"Mr. Tookers, you're aware that you have the right wait until an attorney is present, correct?"

"Yeah, your partner made that pretty clear while he was reading me my rights."

"So you're agreeing to proceed on your own, is that right?"

Danny sat with his hands clasped on the table while Mindy set up the camera at the end of the table opposite Morgan.

"Well, my lawyer is my cousin Lou and he's currently incarcerated, so…" Morgan trailed off while his eyes continued to avoid the camera.

"And you don't want one provided to you?" Danny offered one more time.

The room was silent while Morgan appeared to ponder the offer. After a while he shook his head and leaned forward with a shallow laugh, covering his stubbled face with both of his hands. He rubbed his eyes slowly and replied, "You know what? No. It's pointless. I just need to own up to what I did. Let's just get this over with." He gestured vaguely towards Mindy, indicating that he was ready for her to record. She obliged, pressing a large red button on the side of the device. Danny waited a few seconds for a red light to shine near the lens before he commenced.

"Alright, state your name for the camera, please," he instructed firmly.

Morgan sat up straight and replied, "Morgan Ransom Tookers." Danny wanted to stop the camera in order to ask him if "Ransom" was his legal middle name. He didn't get the impression that Morgan was being insolent, so he continued and resolved to ask him when they were done with the important business of his confession.

"Mr. Tookers, can you state for the camera your understanding as to why you were taken into custody?"

"I was arrested under suspicion of murder," he replied, almost sounding robotic. "More specifically, I was arrested for the stabbing of Josh Daniels."

"And do you admit to stabbing and killing Josh Daniels?"

There was pause, then Morgan took a deep, rattling breath. "Yes, I stabbed Josh Daniels."

Danny looked to Mindy, who had taken a seat on the other side of the table. She put on her best poker face as she asked her first question. "When you agreed to be the official chauffeur for the Daniels mayoral campaign, was your intent to eventually kill him?"

"No!" he denied emphatically. "Not at all! I actually liked him a lot. He seemed like the kind of guy I could have a beer with, y'know?"

"Okay, so what changed?"

He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. "Well…it started when he asked me to drive him to a hotel way out of town to meet some woman. It's not the first time I've driven someone to their affair, but he didn't bother hiding it or lying about it or looking the least bit ashamed. And I was just so…I mean, have you _met_ Tamra Daniels? Like, _actually_ met her? She's an absolute goddess. I just didn't understand how anyone could do that when they had her to turn to. And she's so kind and funny and smart. The best part of taking Daniels to his speeches and interviews was getting to see her. Just being near her became everything to me."

"So would you say that you're in love Mrs. Daniels?" Danny asked.

"I would, yeah." He nodded before looking at his hands resting on the table. "But I knew I never had a chance."

"Soooo," Mindy searched his eyes, "is that why you killed him?"

"No, but that's when I realized how much of a snake he was. It totally changed my perception of him."

"Tell us what happened after that," Danny urged.

"Well, soon after that I had to take him to lunch," he explained. "Instead of having me take him to Pickles he asked to be dropped off at the park to meet up with Tamra. I thought that maybe he'd decided to finally do right be her or something, but that night he was right back to getting dropped off at a gross motel. The second time he asked to be taken to the park was the same day that Tamra called me from out of town in order to find Jason. That's when I realized that he wasn't meeting her at all. The third time I dropped him off is when I actually ended up tailing him. That's when I saw him enter the back of the Grape Leaf with Phil Dayflower."

The mention of Dayflower caused Danny to instantly perk up. Morgan had led them to a very vital part of the discussion. "How do you know Phil Dayflower?"

The name of the dishonorable cop triggered a tightness in Morgan's jaw. Soon he was unable to make eye contact with anything other than an imaginary spot on the table. "Phil Dayflower was Detective Colin Park's partner. Park was the one who…" When he couldn't say anything more, Danny helped.

"Who was Jamie Tookers?"

There was another brief pause before Morgan answered. "My brother."

"And Dayflower was present when Park shot him, correct?"

Nodding, Morgan added, "He was the main one covering up for Park. Jamie had major plans to start his life over, you know? Jail changed him. He was quitting the drugs, he had just landed a job, and he was going to volunteer his ass off. He said he was going to end all of it. He was a kid when he first got caught up in all of it and he just didn't want to see any more young kids end up like him. When the big guns in the drug ring found out, they basically sent these two glorified henchmen with badges out to change his mind. As soon as they saw that they weren't convincing him they just…took him out.

"Seeing Josh there laughing it up with the man that watched my brother fight for his life on the cold pavement just…made me snap. I wanted to avenge Jamie. Going to the police was a joke, so I just made the decision to take things into my own hands."

Mindy shifted into a position that was more comfortable – one foot planted on the chair while her hands clasped around her knee – before launching any further questioning. "Take things into your own hands? You mean kill him?"

"Yes and no."

"Yes and no?" Mindy repeated skeptically. "What does that mean?"

It was Morgan's turn to readjust, taking a moment to stretch out his back before slumping forward onto the table. "I mean…I had a moment when I thought that drugging him was a really good idea. I don't know why. I honestly have never hurt anyone intentionally. Your detectives saw my apartment. All those dogs? Rescues. All ten of them. I'm mostly a good guy! I just saw him with that scum and thought 'This man is going to hurt so many more families.' When my brother was killed, our family died with him. My grandmother deteriorated, my cousins kind of went wild, and my uncle became so fucking depressed. It's been a nightmare."

"Yeah, I bet," Danny mumbled softly, imbued in a creeping sympathy for the man that would be forever labeled a murderer. He was familiar with the pain of seeing a family fall apart, but this type of suffering was on an entirely different level that was, thankfully, beyond his personal experience.

"So night after night of watching this man be so careless – thoughtless, even – I just reached my limit. The night before that shindig at the hotel I kept thinking how fucking awesome it would be if…if Josh just dropped dead. How many problems would that solve if he just…" Morgan gave a snap of his fingers to illustrate his point. "My grandmother makes this excellent alfredo that the office goes nuts over. She's always sending batches to Josh, Jason, and some of the volunteers. She made some to take with me the following day and the next thing I know, I'm crushing some of her meds into Josh's pasta."

"The Plendil, you mean," Mindy clarified, more than likely for the benefit of the recording.

"Yeah," he confirmed. "My cousin and I would argue with Gam-Gam all the time about giving up her grapefruit juice while she was on the stuff. Once I remembered that Josh drank grapefruit juice in the mornings it just felt…right. So I take the pasta with me the day of the fundraiser and just as I'm about to step out of the car, I chicken out."

"You couldn't give him the pasta?" Danny asked.

"I couldn't. I wanted to, I did. I just…couldn't. So I brought in everyone else's and left his in the car. It wasn't until much later when I was picking him up from Heather's apartment that I noticed that his bag was missing. I asked him about it and he told me that he saw the container with his name on it and ate it because he hadn't eaten all day."

"Ugh," Mindy uttered, momentarily dropping her neutral expression in favor of a disgusted one. "He ate pasta that had been sitting in your car all day?"

"He did," Morgan confirmed, looking equally nauseated. "Although, pride kind of goes out the window when you're extremely hungry. But still. Gross."

"Then what happened?" Danny continued.

The man propped his elbows on the table and roughly ran his hands through his hair, almost tugging to the point of stretching the skin at his temples. "I freaked. At first I told him that the pasta had gone bad and that we needed to get his stomach pumped right away. He didn't buy it. I started thinking about how he could have his juice in the morning and just drop like a fly. I imagined him talking to Jason one moment and keeling over the next. I'm clearly not a doctor; I don't know how probable all that is, but I didn't want to risk it. So I decided to tell him."

Danny's eyebrows quirked upward, but he kept silent to allow Morgan to continue.

"Of course, he went bananas. I can't blame him for that, obviously, but he just lost it. He demanded that I pull the car over at this empty warehouse-looking place, jumped out, and immediately came around to my side and started banging on my window. 'Get out of the car, asshole,'" Morgan imitated in a muted roar while his fist mimed the banging. "'Get out of the car so I can fuck you up.' So I got out. I wasn't scared of him, obviously. I mean, look at me."

Danny understood what he was implying and readily agreed. Morgan was easily over six feet tall and while not the buffest, he still looked solid. If Danny were a betting man, he'd choose Morgan to best most men in any fight.

"And I promise I got out of the car to calm him down," Morgan continued, his tone pleading. "I didn't want to fight him. I even offered him a free punch! I just wanted him to understand what led me to do it in the first place. Before I could get to any of that though, he kept pushing me against the car. With each push he just dug at me…called me a piece of trash and how my only purpose in life was to drive him from destiny to destiny, or some Shakespearian bullshit like that. And I was fine with all of that. It's not like I haven't heard it all before. It wasn't until he brought up my family that we had a serious problem."

Danny could hear Mindy shift again before she asked, "What did he say?"

Morgan's face was blank as he tried to remember. "He kind of went into comic book villain mode and started talking about his plans as the mayor…how he was going to bring back all these old school cops who understood the 'hierarchy.'" The last word was framed in air quotes. "He said he was going to 'fix' the NYPD and get back some of the power to the guys that deserved it. He said that his first order of business was making sure that my family rotted in a cell or in the dirt." His bottom lip quivered for just a moment before he steeled himself and continued. "Then he said he knew just the guys for the job. He said any guy that can kill my 'scummy' brother and get away with it was good enough for him. I'll be honest, after that I went blank."

The interrogation room had heard many stories of insane ex-lovers, senseless petty crimes gone wrong, jealousy, and hate. This story, however, was probably one of the most emotionally taxing tales Danny had ever heard in his many years on the force. It was difficult not to sympathize when his mind kept wandering to visions of his own brother lying in a crumpled heap on damp concrete the way Jamie Tookers certainly had been. If this story had been different – had been _his_ – and Richie had suffered the same fate as Morgan's brother, he would like to say that he would remain on the right side of the law if faced with Josh-like bullying. He couldn't say for certain, though, and that brand of uncertainty chilled him. It could just as easily be him, sitting in front of a camera and recounting the moment his life changed for the worse. Returning to the moment, Danny cleared his throat and asked Morgan to recall the clearest moment after Josh's threat.

"I remember his hands around my throat," he sighed. "I remember thinking he was stronger than he looked. I remember the panic I felt when it became harder to breathe and I couldn't focus my eyes. Had it been any other guy or any other circumstance I would have just fought to get him off of me. That rage, though…I just reached in my pocket and grabbed my knife. I blacked out again. Didn't come to my senses until I was sitting next his body." He hung his head. "I didn't think I could go to the police. I didn't know how deep things with Josh ran, or who was on whose side. I just put him in my trunk and drove."

"And you eventually dropped him off at that parking garage," Mindy supplied. "What made you go there?"

"Drivers and cabbies love that spot. The cameras stopped working a year or so ago and you never see any cops over there. One of the guys I used to work with met his weed dealer there all the time before he went to rehab."

"Okay, Mr. Tookers," Danny sighed. "One more question for you: did you work alone?"

Morgan nodded readily. "Unfortunately, yes. I wish I hadn't been, though. It would have been nice to have someone there to save me from myself. You know, I always thought that saying was stupid until just now."

Danny looked to Mindy to see if she had any more questions. Without saying anything else, she stood and took her place behind the camera and quickly located the 'record' button. It wasn't until the red light died that he finally felt like the case was closed. The unmitigated joy he was certain he'd feel at the arrival of this moment didn't arrive. Instead, he felt an uneasiness that coiled at the pit of his stomach.

After a brief burst of applause and celebratory pats on the back, Danny decided to take a moment in the break room alone to decompress. He leaned against the counter and silently berated himself for not being happier about his and Mindy's success. _We got him_, he thought. _This is good, Castellano_. It wasn't long before he heard the footsteps of someone entering. He was already beginning to mourn the loss of his alone time until he heard her voice.

"I could really get used to the celebrity treatment after a solved case," Mindy gushed, her smile somehow just as bright in the late night as it was mid-morning. "At my last precinct, the solving of cases was recognized in the form of a Tootsie Roll pop, which was gifted to us by our administrative assistant. Betsy's not going to do something like that, right?"

He chuckled. "Nah, but don't give her any ideas."

Mindy took her place next to him against the counter. "So, how does it feel?"

"Well…" he trailed, trying to think of a less pathetic way to voice his concern. "It feels good, but…I don't know. When he was talking about his brother…did you, like…"

He considered rescinding his question, but Mindy looked too expectant as her eyebrows lifted almost to her hairline and her eyes made contact. "What?" she pressed. "Did I picture my brother getting killed by some dirty cop and slicing Daniels from his heart to his dick for trivializing it?"

Danny's head snapped in her direction. "Uh, yeah. Exactly that."

"Oh, definitely. I don't see how anyone with a loved one couldn't imagine somewhat where Morgan was coming from."

Danny turned his body fully towards her and asked in a hushed tone, "And that doesn't scare the shit out of you? It doesn't freak you out that we're not really as above heinous crime as we think?"

"Dan, of course not," she replied with a sympathetic chuckle. "No, we're totally above murder, okay? Understanding why someone would do something and actually doing it are two different matters entirely. For instance, I could see why someone might think that replacing the bread in a sandwich with two fried chicken breasts would be an excellent idea. That doesn't mean I'll be next in line at KFC to put that into my body."

Though he rolled his eye, Danny smirked. "I'm going to pretend that you didn't just compare murder to the Double Down."

"If you think about it –"

"No, Min."

"Okay, maybe that was a stretch," she relented quietly with a smile. "But you know what I mean." Mindy reached out to tug on the flap of his leather jacket. "You're a really good guy. That doesn't change just because you understood a criminal's motive for a moment. Now stop sulking and enjoy the fact that we totally kicked this case's ass."

Relieved, he let out a relaxing exhale and finally allowed himself to enjoy their success. "We did nail this assignment, didn't we?"

"Fuck yeah, we did…I mean I did most of the heavy lifting, but…"

"Really, Lahiri?"

"Nah, you helped, you helped."

They laughed while Danny's hand found the one still clutching his jacket. "You were great. You don't need me to tell you that, but you were."

Mindy gave an imperceptive nod, allowing herself to be gently pulled into his personal space. "You too, Danny. You were amazing, actually." The warm feeling of her hands creeping underneath his jacket and resting on his chest propelled him to wrap his arms around her waist.

"Amazing, huh?" he teased.

"And to think, you used to have a problem working well with others!"

Shaking his head, he countered, "Nah, I still have that problem. Not with you, though. You're the greatest thing that ever happened to me career-wise, friendship-wise…"

Mindy tried unsuccessfully to cover up her smile. "And more-than-friendship-wise, surely."

"Yeah," Danny readily agreed, laying a kiss on her forehead. "Without a doubt." He kissed her cheek. "The improvement in my more-than-friendship life is arguably the best of all the improvements." Grinning, Danny trailed a path of tiny kisses from the ridge of her cheekbone to the corner of her mouth. He felt her hands tense up on his chest.

"In the break room, Danny? Somebody is going to walk right in here!" Mindy made no effort to move.

"I hope it's Lang," he mumbled against her cheek. "He kind of lingered on that handshake after the bust."

"Jealous grump."

"Gorgeous weirdo."

With a turn of her head, Mindy's lips met Danny's willingly and eagerly, her previous warning regarding their location pleasantly forgotten. She pulled back after only a brief nibble on his bottom lip. "We should really celebrate. Not here, obviously."

Danny dropped a kiss on the tip of her nose. "How about some place nice? Tomorrow night. We'll dress to the nines and find the snootiest, most ridiculously priced restaurant we can find. Like, 'Jesus, this slice of chocolate cake has flecks of gold in it' ridiculous."

"Okay, that sounds delicious and right up my alley," Mindy responded enthusiastically, "and I will take you up on that offer very, very soon. But for now, I was thinking something more…immediate. Like, tonight. We can pick up some Japanese hibachi and take full advantage of my uncharacteristically clean apartment."

Danny could already feel his pulse quickening at the invitation. His eyes searched hers, desperate to understand her implication. "You're inviting me back to your place?"

Mindy bit her bottom lip and nodded confidently. "Unless your heart is really set on this golden chocolate cake, then we can always do that."

"You're crazy if you think we're going out for expensive cake now," Danny laughed. He disengaged just enough to still be able to cling to her hand as he led her out of the break room. "Let's go."

* * *

That night while draped in cool sheets and long black hair, Danny concluded that there were far better sounds than the thud of a lonely case file dropping into dusty cabinet – like a creaking headboard, or Mindy Lahiri moaning his name over and over again…

_CASE CLOSED._


	12. Epilogue: Two and a Half Years Later

Something told him he was on the precipice of a major breakthrough. After a long month, the pieces were finally converging into clearer picture. They were just one misplaced hair, one falsified alibi away from finally getting David "Rabbi" Adler on the right side of a set of prison bars. He just needed to stay awake for one more hour to look over these pathetic excuses for witness accounts. One more hour. He was _that _close.

Danny sank a little further into his plusher-than-necessary couch as he held up the affidavit towards the light. He glanced at his glass once more, hoping to find something other than the steadily melting ice cubes that cooled his beverage not too long ago. He thought about just tossing back the pool of melted ice, hoping that would be enough to quench his growing thirst. Getting a brand new drink was also an option. That, however, required actually getting up and, much to his chagrin, the couch really was, as Mindy had assessed in the store, "comfortable as fuck." Still, he had created such a stink about having to replace his old couch that it would be impossible to admit that her choice for a stand-in was a good one.

The sound of something knocking over an outside garbage can jogged him out of his silent tangent. With a rapid shake of his head, he refocused on the task and tried to ignore the increasing dryness in his mouth.

"Babe. Seriously? Again?"

Briefly startled, he turned around to find Mindy standing at their bedroom door way, her hands perched on her fleece pajama-clad hips. Despite her questioning tone, she looked as if she expected to find him just like this.

"I'm so close, Min," Danny explained softly. "I just need forty-five minutes. An hour, tops."

"Why are _you_ close?" she asked, walking around to meet him on the other side of the couch. "Why isn't Prentice close? This is his case, after all."

"I know, babe, but Peter is such an idiot."

"Okay, that's not fair. He's a good detective. You said so yourself last week."

Danny shrugged. "Okay, he's good, yeah. I just think he might be looking over something important. Look at this," he thrust the document towards her as she sat closely to him. "There's something off here, don't you think?"

"No," she denied, pushing it away. "I don't. And I didn't think so yesterday night, either."

"You're killing me," Danny mumbled, resuming his reading. Mindy tucked her legs underneath her body and faced Danny fully.

"You know," she started brightly, "when Maggie got promoted to sergeant of her division, she was soooo excited because that meant less time in the field and more delegating. Sure it would mean more responsibility, but it was more stable, calmer…"

"That's great, sweetheart," Danny appeased, only listening halfway.

"So when _you_ got promoted a few months ago," she continued, "I thought, 'Oh, cool! That means he can take it a little easier. And by extension, that means I can take it easy, as well!'"

Danny looked up from the work in order to give her a somewhat authoritative look. "Min, that's not fair. You know I can't give you special treatment."

"Is that so?" Mindy tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. "That's funny, because when Betsy and Dennis were caught kissing in the evidence room, you gave them a disciplinary write-up and a full-on lecture. What punishment did I get after our quickie in the bathroom?"

He smiled at the memory of that day, just after his promotion has been announced. "Touché."

"Thank you. What I'm saying is, you're Sergeant Castellano now. You're always saying, 'I trust my squad, even that dickhead Lang.' Do you still believe that to be true?"

Sighing, he nodded. "I do. I honestly do. I just miss the work. Collecting evidence, talking to a bunch of crazy New Yorkers –"

"-You still do a lot of that stuff, Dan," Mindy reminding him sympathetically.

"Yeah, but not as much as before, you know?" He tossed the paper on the coffee table. "I don't have the time anymore. But I miss having actual cases."

"Oh, you want a case?" Mindy asked. "How about the case of the missing seating chart that my fiancé promised to look over, since Annette Castellano needs to be placed 'just so'?"

"Min –"

"Or," she continued a little louder, "The case of the replacement DJ after one of us canceled the really awesome one we had over a completely unnecessary background check?"

"She was arrested for stealing, Mindy! What, do you want our gifts to wind up on the back of a truck?"

"She was a teenager then, Danny!" Mindy argued. "It was over a decade ago! She clearly cleaned up her act. She was so cool."

He rolled his eyes. "Okay, we can't have this argument again. I promise I'll find an even cooler replacement."

"I know you will," Mindy replied, "but that's not what we're discussing here. Right now, I just want you to come with me to bed and let your team do their job." She leaned forward and rested a hand on his face. "I can tell it's stressing you out and turning you into an old man. I can see the flecks of gray in your stubble."

Danny smiled crookedly. "Who are you trying to fool? You told me just last week that my graying hair was a huge turn-on."

Mindy groaned, then smiled softly. "Damn my big mouth."

"Yeah, that's what I thought," he mumbled into her palm before dropping a couple quick kisses there. He wrapped a hand around the wrist resting on his cheek and tugged her towards him until she was lying on top of his body. Once they were properly aligned, he anchored her to him with both of his arms secured around her waist. Everything he had been reviewing fell sloppily to the ground, but he didn't care. "I hope you don't feel neglected, baby."

"Stop being silly." She quickly kissed his pouting lips. "Of course I don't feel neglected. I'm just worried about you. Do you not like your job? You've worked so hard to get here."

"I love being Sergeant Castellano. I'm happy. I just get a little antsy at my desk. I miss taking down perps with you. Really, I miss being in a team with you."

"Well, in six weeks I am legally locking you down," Mindy said as she laid her head on his shoulders. "After that, you're gonna have all the teamwork you can stomach. In sickness and in fuckin' health, mister."

Danny guffawed throatily as Mindy planted a lingering kiss on his jaw line. "I can't wait. Alright, when you put it that way, I guess I'm not missing out on as much as I thought. Fine. I'll let Peter handle his own case."

"Good." Mindy lifted herself up until she was hovering slightly over him. "And I promise that the next case I have, I'll make sure to get a ton of input from you."

"We both know you don't actually need my input. You'd just be humoring me."

"Probably. Does that matter?"

Pausing for a moment, Danny grinned and lifted his head just enough to be able to kiss her softly on her lips. He breathed her in graciously, grateful that he was already beginning to forget a time that they were ever less in love than this. "No, it doesn't matter at all, really."

* * *

**A/N: I truly hope everyone enjoyed this story! Thank you all for being so supportive and respectful. I appreciate it so much. **

**Thank you to Mona, the lovely individual who agreed to beta this for me and for being the best, most honest cheerleader a person could have on their side.**

**Thank you to HelenVanPattersonPatton for being a precious gem.**

**Thank you to all my Twitter/Tumblr friends for being the vocal and living best, all the time, every day.**

**No fucking thank you will be extended to the cop movies I watched in preparation, because they didn't clarify shit (okay, I may need to take some responsibility here). But Google did, so no harm no foul.**

**I love you all. **

**Hollaatchyagirl,**

**Phunky**


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